NEW DELHI: India recently piloted peer-to-peer power trading that will enable consumers such as households, businesses and farmers who generate renewable energy to directly sell their surplus power to other consumers through digital protocols. Mint examines how digital public infrastructure under the India Energy Stack helps such transactions.
What is peer-to-peer trading of power?
Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading refers to the direct trading of power between consumers. Once implemented, it will allow households and entities that produce solar power through rooftop installations to sell their excess generation to other consumers. Consumers who produce and sell excess power are called prosumers.
How will this transaction take place?
P2P trading of will be done through a digital platform. A pilot project conducted during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 last week used a blockchain-enabled platform under the India Energy Stack (IES) framework. The mechanism of net metering helps in such transactions. Net metering is a billing system for solar panel owners that credits them for excess electricity they generate and feed back into the utility grid.
What is the India Energy Stack?
The India Energy Stack (IES) is a digital public infrastructure designed to empower citizens as active ‘energy agents’ rather than passive recipients of electricity. IES is a proposed interoperable digital framework that enables secure, low-cost data and service exchange across the , similar to how UPI (unified payments interface) transformed India’s digital payments ecosystem.
It is expected to be completed by June this year. The power ministry announced the launch of a task force to conceive the IES in June 2025. State-run REC Ltd is the nodal agency for the IES on behalf of the ministry of power. The energy stack is expected to offer unique IDs for consumers, assets and transactions; real-time, consent-based data sharing; seamless system integration; and tools for consumer empowerment, market access and innovation.
What are the benefits of P2P power trading?
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, P2P electricity trading makes renewable energy more accessible and empowers consumers while making better use of their distributed energy resources. It keeps the community resilient to outages in emergencies and can improve energy access.
It offers a marketplace for prosumers to trade the renewable energy generated at a better price, encouraging further deployment of distributed . It allows consumers to have control over their electricity consumption and its price, increasing flexibility in the system. This also helps in balancing the grid and reducing congestion.
What is the way forward for P2P in India?
In the near future, national capacity is likely to see a wider-scale pilot project. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission recently approved a framework for P2P trading in the city. The Times of India reported recently that the first phase of the pilot project would involve about 1,000 consumers, along with inter-state transactions with consumers in Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission recently approved a six-month pilot project for P2P trading of power.