The Imperative for an Integrated Resource Adequacy Framework 

FSR Global hosted a high-level webinar titled “The Imperative for an Integrated Resource Adequacy Assessment (I-RAA) Framework” on 31 July 2025, bringing together system operators, planners, regulators, and technology experts to unpack India’s evolving needs for resource adequacy and resilience in the face of rising demand and increasing renewable energy penetration. 

The session opened with a presentation by Mr. Ramakrishnan Atreya, Research Associate at FSR Global, on the I-RAA Handbook, introducing a holistic framework that integrates demand forecasting, fuel security, generation adequacy, transmission and operational readiness, and the enabling role of electricity markets. This was followed by the panel discussion that was moderated by Mr. KVS Baba, Former CMD, Grid-India, and Distinguished Fellow and Co-Chair, Resource Adequacy Vertical, FSR Global and focused on national and global implications of shifting from conventional resource adequacy metrics to integrated approaches. The discussion featured insightful contributions from Mr. D. Radhakrishna (Former Chair, Tripura Electricity Regulatory Commission), Mr. Abhishek Ranjan (CEO, BSES Rajdhani Power), Mr. S.C. Saxena (CMD, Grid-India), and Dr. Indradip Mitra (CEO, IT Power India). The panellists examined the practical, institutional, and technical enablers required to operationalise IRAA. 

From Traditional to I-RAA Planning 

The I-RAA emerges as a key framework to bridge this demand gap. In contrast to the traditional approaches that focused solely on generation using deterministic metrics like peak load estimates, the I-RAA framework accounts for the full spectrum of the electricity supply chain requirements that include real-time demand assessment, fuel availability, generation and storage flexibility, transmission and distribution reliability, operational flexibility, and market mechanisms. It introduces a multi-dimensional approach to resource adequacy planning, encompassing not only whether there is installed capacity, but also whether the system is capable of delivering power supply reliably across spatial and temporal granularities under different conditions. 

The Central Role of Demand Assessment 

Accurate real-time demand assessment is foundational to this proposed paradigm. The forecasting challenge now includes both gross and net demand, where the latter refers to the total load less the generation from embedded sources like rooftop solar, waste-to-energy and wind plants. This type of forecasting requires high resolution, time-granular data on both consumption and supply. In India, artificial intelligence-driven ensemble models, which combine multiple machine learning techniques using real-time weather, load, and outage data, are already showing promising accuracy improvements, particularly in urban centres like Delhi. Forecasting models are evolving to distinguish between demand patterns across days, seasons, and user categories, with increased use of weather indices and 15-minute interval data. However, many states in the country still lack accurate forecasting capabilities and granular input data. 

Beyond Reliability: The Need for Flexibility and Resilience 

With VRE becoming a larger part of the generation mix, flexibility and resilience become equally important as reliability. While traditional metrics like the Loss of Load Probability (LOLP) do help in the prediction of loss-of-load during a given time, sophisticated modelling and real-time system balancing measures are required to handle both risks (unknown outcomes with known probabilities) and uncertainty (unknown outcomes with unknown probabilities). 

Electricity Markets as a Pillar of Resource Adequacy 

The market has a critical role in supporting adequacy. In India, where electricity markets are still developing, signals from real-time, day-ahead, and long-term markets can help balance supply-demand mismatches and incentivise capacity investments. Capacity markets, which compensate generators for maintaining available capacity rather than just selling energy, may become important as the system evolves. These mechanisms should also be designed to encourage participation from aggregators and distributed resources, the entities that can bundle rooftop solar, storage, or flexible loads to act as collective system assets. 

Institutional Coordination, Regulatory Action, and Capacity Building  

Institutional coordination is another critical enabler of I-RAA. Successful implementation will require close collaboration between distribution companies (DISCOMs), Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs), State Load Despatch Centres (SLDCs), the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), and private sector stakeholders. The I-RAA framework also proposes the constitution of a National Resource Adequacy Committee (NRAC) along with regional/local integration plans to align efforts and ensure bottom-up planning is integrated with top-down oversight. State regulatory commissions will play a pivotal role in ensuring that generation, transmission, and distribution planning are integrated, while also improving the visibility and forecasting of behind-the-meter resources. These efforts must be supported by capacity building, particularly within DISCOMs and SLDCs, many of which face staffing shortages and outdated infrastructure that hinder their ability to manage large datasets or adopt advanced planning tools. 

Technology and Data Standardisation 

Increased technological intervention would help address the numerous capacity building and operational planning challenges at various institutional levels. There exists many open-source or global tools to simulate and model different aspects of adequacy, but the larger challenges lie with integrating the various modelling and meta-modelling approaches for a framework as vast as I-RAA. In addition to such a large framework, there are also concerns of data quality, standardisation, and integration. The ongoing India Energy Stack (IES) exercise that proposes to create a digital infrastructure backbone would help enable real-time data sharing and role-based access for stakeholders across the country’s electricity ecosystem in the near future. With the transition from 15-minute to 5-minute metering already underway, computational capability and modelling sophistication must keep pace. 

Way Forward 

The future of power systems, both in India and across the world, demands a fundamental shift from siloed resource adequacy assessments to integrated, system-wide planning approaches. In addition to renewable penetration, varying consumption patterns, future power systems planning will not only have to move away from capacity planning, but also build reliable, flexible and resilient systems that are capable of responding to short-term shocks and long-term uncertainties alike. This requires a reimagining of how resource adequacy is defined, measured, planned, and governed, to incorporate inputs from real-time data, probabilistic forecasting, and adaptive planning at all levels of the electricity value chain. 

Globally, the imperative is to harmonise planning frameworks across jurisdictions, break institutional siloes, and foster cross-sectoral collaboration, especially between utilities, regulators, market operators, and digital innovators. Tools and technologies must be made interoperable to ensure that countries, regardless of their starting point, can chart their own pathways toward adequacy. Markets must evolve to reflect the true value of flexibility, resilience, and distributed resources. Regulatory regimes, in turn, must move beyond compliance to become enablers of a combined yet decentralised approach to power system planning. For emerging economies like India, this transition is both a challenge and an opportunity to leapfrog toward a more inclusive, efficient, and climate-aligned power sector that not only meets domestic needs but sets a precedent for the world.