Guwahati, Jan 21: Assam is on the brink of an unprecedented surge in electricity demand, with fresh projections indicating that the state’s requirement will nearly triple by 2035-36. According to the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) Resource Adequacy Plan, Assam’s peak demand is expected to rise from 2,812 MW in 2024-25 to 7,969 MW by 2035-36 — a dramatic escalation driven by rapid urbanization, industrial investments, and expanding consumer needs across districts.
While the state intends to scale its generation capacity to more than 17,700 MW by 2035-36, power sector specialists warn that this alone will not safeguard Assam from future shortages. The most pressing gap lies in the transmission network, which experts say must expand far more aggressively to match the steep rise in demand.
According to industry expert Saddaf Alam, who has been associated with Smokeless Power Consulting as Chief Consultant, said, “Power generation can be contracted, enhanced, or procured from outside the state, but building transmission lines requires years of coordinated planning, land approvals, and right-of-way clearances. Timely expansion of transmission infrastructure will ensure reliable electricity supply and support the state’s holistic growth.”
He further added: “A robust transmission infrastructure will substantially reduce the high cost of power purchases during peak demand. These savings can then be channelled towards the development and welfare of the people of the state. Strengthening transmission will also reduce grid stress, which otherwise results in heavy transmission loading, higher risks of tripping and voltage instability, and over-dependence on a limited number of corridors. Such vulnerabilities often lead to frequent power cuts and large-scale blackouts, as seen during the May 2025 outage in Guwahati that affected 1.5 lakh consumers, and the July 2024 grid collapse that impacted nearly 2 lakh people across five districts.”
Frequent power outage creates operational disruption of industries impacting overall supply chain, investment deterrence, limits infra upgrade, disrupts irrigation, incur post-harvest loss up to 20 %, disrupts of health services, education and other growth indicators. Uninterrupted power supply alone has potential to generate over 2 lakh jobs in all sectors and open new avenues of industrial growth.
Experts are believed transmission infrastructure has a crucial role to play in the overall power scenario of Assam because without high-capacity corridors even contracted power will remain stuck. Assam’s electricity demand is growing vertically, while transmission expansion has been horizontal and slow. The real bottleneck is the ability to evacuate and deliver that power efficiently. Assam must prioritize transmission expansion as the core of its energy security strategy.
Experts believe the next decade will be crucial in determining whether Assam can keep pace with its economic ambitions. Strengthening transmission lines, accelerating substation upgrades, reducing RoW delays, and building new high-capacity corridors are seen as essential steps.
