reduce diesel oil consumption by diesel generator sets and the installation of UPS systems. Demand build up measures. Electricity-intensive industries consume the cheaper electricity (average price Rs 2.5 per kWhr) available from the grid instead of running their own coal/gas/oil fired captive power plants. The captive power generation capacity by such plants is nearly 53,000 MW, and they are mainly established in steel, fertilizer, aluminium, cement, etc. industries. These plants can draw cheaper electricity from the grid on short term open access (STOA) basis, avoiding their own higher cost of electricity generation and diverting power from other consumers. Some of these idling captive power plants can be used for ancillary services or grid reserve service and earn extra revenue. Unequal electricity distribution. Almost all households have access to electricity. However, most households find the electricity supply intermittent and unreliable. At the same time, many power stations are idling for lack of electricity demand and the idling generation capacity is sufficient to supply the needs of households lacking electricity three times over. Erratic power pricing. In general, industrial and commercial consumers subsidize domestic and agricultural consumers. Government giveaways such as free electricity for farmers, created partly to curry political favor, have depleted the cash reserves of state-run electricity-distribution system and led to debts of . This has financially crippled the distribution network, and its ability to pay to purchase power in the absence of subsidies from state governments. This situation has been worsened by state government departments that do not pay their electricity bills. Over-rated capacity. Many coal-fired plants are overrated above the actual maximum continuous rating (MCR) capacity. to allow the plant cost to be inflated. These plants operate 15 to 10% below their declared capacity on a daily basis and rarely operate at declared capacity, undermining grid stability. Lack of timely information on load and demand. Intraday graphs at 15-minute or more frequent intervals are required to understand the shortcomings of the power grid with respect to grid frequency, including comprehensive data collected from SCADA for all grid-connected generating stations (≥ 100 KW) and load data from all substations. Lack of adequate coal supply: Despite abundant reserves of coal, power plants are frequently under-supplied. India's monopoly coal producer, state-controlled Coal India, is constrained by primitive mining techniques and is rife with theft and corruption. Poor coal transport infrastructure has worsened these problems. Most of India's coal lies under protected