‘We aim to be relevant across the value chain’
India recently met a record peak power demand of 250 GW. What shifts are you seeing in the T&D network to manage rising loads and ensure reliability?
India’s T&D network is being modernised at a pace not seen before. Utilities are strengthening transmission corridors, upgrading substations and converting ageing overhead systems into underground networks to reduce outages and improve reliability. The adoption of SCADA-based automation, real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance has also accelerated, driven by the need to handle higher loads efficiently. These interventions are critical as India plans a transmission capex of over Rs9.12 lakh crore by 2032, alongside rapid industrial expansion and urbanisation, which continue to push demand higher.
As renewable energy’s share in the energy mix grows, how is the grid adapting to manage variability and stability concerns?
As renewable energy approaches half of India’s installed capacity, grid management is shifting from a static to a far more dynamic operating model. The variability inherent in solar and wind is being addressed through a combination of network strengthening and advanced system intelligence. Utilities are reinforcing transmission corridors, upgrading substations with flexible and digital switchgear, and deploying wide-area monitoring and SCADA-based controls to balance supply and demand in real time. Improved forecasting, supported by data analytics, is also enabling better scheduling and faster corrective action.
At a system level, grid stability is being enhanced through substation automation, adaptive protection schemes and predictive fault diagnostics that reduce response times. Battery Energy Storage Systems are increasingly being integrated at generation, feeder and substation levels to smooth out intermittency, support frequency regulation and improve protection coordination. From an execution standpoint, our role lies in creating resilient evacuation infrastructure -- through EHV GIS substations, underground cable networks and high-reliability transmission systems -- that allow renewable power to be absorbed safely into the grid without compromising stability or reliability.
RPSL has reported strong growth this year, with H1 2025-26 revenue up 104 per cent year on year. What is driving this performance?
The growth is a combination of disciplined project execution and a well-diversified order book across both transmission and distribution. In H1 2025-26, revenue rose to Rs638 crore, EBIDTA increased 126 per cent to R84 crore, and PAT grew 99 per cent to Rs59 crore. Margins have remained healthy, with EBIDTA at 13.16 per cent and PAT at 9.22 per cent. A major contributor is the surge in distribution modernisation projects, particularly underground cabling and MVCC networks.
Rajesh Power has traditionally had a strong presence in Gujarat. What is your national expansion strategy going forward?
Gujarat remains our home market and a strong foundation, but our strategy is firmly pan-India. We have expanded meaningfully into Rajasthan, where our order book has grown from Rs10-12 crore in 2021 to over Rs200-250 crore today. We are executing underground cable projects in Uttarakhand, which itself has a future tender pipeline of more than Rs2,000 crore. We are selectively bidding in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, where large-scale transmission and distribution tenders – totalling several thousand crores – are expected in the near term.
With utilities increasingly adopting smart grid technologies, how is RPSL positioning itself on the digital front?
Digital integration is no longer optional. Our associate company HKRP Innovations – where we hold a 25.48 per cent stake – has built some of India’s most advanced cloud-based SCADA and industrial IoT solutions. HKRP has already centralised more than 1,500 distribution substations on a single platform in Gujarat, monitoring 30,000 plus nodes and over 10,000 MW of load in real time.