The Union Budget: 2025 presented by Union finance minister, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman, made announcements relating specifically to the power transmission & distribution (T&D) sector.
In her Budget 2025 speech, the Union finance minister said that the ongoing “Manufacturing Mission” covering small, medium and large industries for furthering the “Make in India” philosophy will also cover “Clean Tech” manufacturing.
With the result, efforts will be made to improve domestic value addition and towards building India’s manufacturing ecosystem for solar PV cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolyzers, wind turbines, extra high voltage (EHV) power transmission equipment and grid-scale batteries.
The Mission’s mandate will include five focus areas:
- Ease and cost of doing business;
- Future ready workforce for in-demand jobs;
- A vibrant and dynamic MSME sector;
- Availability of technology
- Quality products
Power distribution
The finance minister also said that the government will incentivize electricity distribution reforms as well as augmentation of intrastate transmission capacity. This, the FM said, will improve financial health and capacity of electricity companies. As part of the incentives to be offered, additional borrowing of 0.5 per cent of GSDP (gross state domestic product) will be allowed to state governments, contingent on these reforms.
Nuclear energy
Budget 2025 has also proposed several measures for nuclear power generation, in keeping with the nation’s overall objective of moving away from fossil fuels. Accordingly, the finance minister noted that at least 100 GW of nuclear energy (implying installed capacity) will be needed by 2047 for supporting the country’s overall energy transition goals.
“For an active partnership with the private sector towards this goal, amendments to the Atomic Energy Act and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act will be taken up,” Ms Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Currently, India’s operational installed nuclear power capacity is around 8,180 MW (or roughly 8.2 GW), mostly from large-sized units. With a view to promoting small modular reactors, which will complement the efforts of conventional large-sized reactors, the Budget has proposed the setting up of a Nuclear Energy Mission for research & development of small modular reactors (SMR) with an outlay of Rs.20,000 crore. This mission is expected to result in at least five indigenously developed SMRs by 2033.
Featured photograph (source: PGCIL) showing PGCIL’s 765kV Bareilly substation in Uttar Pradesh is for representation only
