Railways, airports, data centres must build 100% redundancy in lines connecting

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By M Ramesh

Updated - October 16, 2026 at 07:43 PM.

CEA signals a sharper emphasis on continuity of electricity supply to facilities where an interruption could have serious operational, economic or public-safety consequences

Large electricity consumers such as railways, metro rail systems, refineries, steel plants, hospitals and data centres, should plan their grid connections with 100 per cent redundancy and, as much as possible, access to two different sources of supply, the Central Electricity Authority has said.

In Manual on Transmission Planning Criteria, 2026, released on Wednesday, CEA signals a sharper emphasis on continuity of electricity supply to facilities where an interruption could have serious operational, economic or public-safety consequences. 

Redundancy means having alternative supply arrangements available if the normal supply path fails. In practice, this could involve independent grid connections, alternative transmission or distribution paths, or appropriately configured substations and associated equipment. The extent of infrastructure required would depend on the facility and its existing connection arrangements. 

The manual’s wording is significant in two respects. First, it specifies 100 per cent redundancy for the listed critical loads.

Second, it says that the connections should, as far as possible, be from two different sources of supply. Merely having two feeders would not necessarily provide meaningful redundancy if both depended on the same vulnerable upstream infrastructure. 

For example, a hospital supplied through two feeders that share a common substation or transmission corridor could remain vulnerable to a failure affecting that common point.

A genuinely resilient arrangement would need to consider the extent to which the two supply paths are independent. 

The provision could have cost implications. Providing additional feeders, substations, transformers, switchgear, protection systems and associated infrastructure may require fresh investment or modifications to existing installations.

The actual cost, and who bears it, would depend on the connection design, the applicable regulations and the arrangements between the consumer and the relevant utilities. 

CEA Chairman Ghanshyam Prasad says in the Foreword that the has brought out the manual against the backdrop of the “rapid transformation” in the power sector requiring large scale integration of variable renewable energy, longer distance power transmission, advances in technology, and also rising fault levels and right-of-way issues. 

Prasad notes that while 765 kV transmission system has come up well, there is now a need for a 1150 kV ultra high voltage ac (UHVAC) transmission, as it offers higher power transfer, lower losses and help in dealing with RoW issues. 

Published on October 15, 2026

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