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Stranded assets could be valued at Rs 150,000 crore (at an average of Rs 7.5 crore per MW), which is staggering, to say the least. Going by the perceived idle capacity of 20,000 MW, the cumulative losses incurred by the power companies every year come to around Rs 12,000 crore on fixed cost alone.

May refer CEA site for the above info. The idle capacity is mainly in gas power stations due to lack of fuel or no takers for high cost power because of expensive imported gas fuel or no PPAs. India does not have much gas resource.

Smart grid is an evolving set of various technologies, especially information and communication technologies, working together to improve the present grid.

The global renewable energy sector has witnessed rapid growth in the last decade, driven by 3 key factors - widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies at increasingly competitive costs, efficiency brought in by hi-tech products driven by new age technology and new business models for distributed generation and services.

In my opinion the focus of solar PV power is shifting more to urban and semi-urban classes and there are reasons to accept as solar power is almost at par with grid based power. Under such circumstance, the village/ rural electrification is merely meant to fulfil social obligations.

The Ministry of Power and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), after consultation with state governments, have formulated the roadmap and strategy to electrify the remaining un-electrified villages on mission mode under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY).

Connecting remote villages in difficult terrain that too in a country as big as India by conventional electricity grid is always a challenge.

Presently all 39 un-electrified villages in the State which are located in remote forest area are proposed to be electrified through stand alone solar system. At present, the tender is under process.

India has always had a large rural economy with most of the people eking out their living from these areas and as such, since independence successive governments have tried to improve rural infrastructure, including that of power connectivity.