Mumbai: The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet on Wednesday launched the India Grids of the Future Accelerator (IGFA) platform through which it will deploy up to $25 million in the initial stage to modernise power distribution, integrate renewable energy and storage, and prepare power grids in the country for rapid demand growth.
Between 2026 and 2028, the Alliance will onboard 15 power distribution companies (discoms), convene government partners, technology providers, investors, and philanthropic funders, and pump in $100 million to aid India’s transition to clean energy, it said in a media statement. The interventions will positively impact nearly 300 million people across the country, the statement noted.
On Wednesday, the second day of the Mumbai Climate Week (MCW), the Alliance signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the All India Discom Association and discoms in Delhi and Rajasthan, designating the two states as the first cohort of champion utilities under the IGFA.
Speaking at the launch of the platform, former union minister and president of Eversource Capital Jayant Sinha said, “As India advances towards the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, reliable, modern and future-ready power systems will be central to sustaining growth and energy security.”
Rajiv J Shah, president, Rockefeller Foundation, while formally announcing the IGFA, said it was a first-of-its-kind public, private, and philanthropic collaboration. Though energy access was the biggest obstacle to human well-being, it was also the biggest collective opportunity, he noted.
“Initiatives like the India Grids of the Future Accelerator demonstrate how coordinated, delivery-focused partnerships can translate national priorities into on-ground outcomes,” Shah said. “India has become a global leader in delivering clean, affordable, abundant energy. Now, the IGFA will build on that extraordinary progress.”
Woochong Um, chief executive officer of the Global Energy Alliance, said India’s clean energy transition was entering a decisive new phase, defined not by access alone, but by the ability of power systems to deliver reliability, flexibility, and scale.
“Through the India Grids of the Future Accelerator, we are working hand-in-hand with utilities to build the digital, financial, and institutional capacity required to integrate renewables and storage at scale,” Um said.