Rewiring Power: Visions, materialities and contestations of the National Smart Grid Mission in India

Abstract

In the ongoing transformation of India’s energy system towards financially, technically and ecologically sound infrastructures, the distribution sector has long been perceived as a problem, causing, for example, high loss rates, poor power quality or difficulties in integrating renewable energy. Among a number of strategies, the National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) was positioned to design, implement and test solutions to solving these issues and envisioning India’s future distribution system.

But not only in India smart grids are seen as central tools for the future of energy systems. Around the world, smart grids are associated with desirable attributes such as flexibility or democratising power, promoting consumers to “prosumers”. In the case of the NSGM, this future is being negotiated between a range of public agencies (DSOs and regulators), ICT companies and (public‑)private consultancies, shaping the visions for the distribution sector, including the reconfiguration of actor positions.

In this presentation, I ask how the NSGM contributes to rewiring decision-making power within the distribution sector. I consider this question to be particularly important in light of recent academic debates on energy justice, which ask about the distributional, recognitional and procedural dimensions of energy transitions.

To understand the rewiring of power within and through the NSGM, I develop a methodology that draws on Assemblage Theory and Situational Analysis. Through a comparative case study of three NSGM pilot projects, I identify two central shifts: a turn towards micro-privatisation of various grid functions and the increasing use of technology to regulate deviant behaviour with the aim of depoliticising the distribution infrastructure.

However, the study also shows that the realisation of the NSGM is far from straightforward: On the ground, these installations are contested by the social and material reality, for example by failing to make the necessary connections, realising the desired functionalities or involving the critical actors. These disruptions of the smart grid point to alternative visions, in which human interaction and negotiation, as well as flat hierarchies and shared knowledge, are means to a just and smart energy distribution system.