Tata Power CEO says India is ready for an AI-driven power demand surge

Artificial intelligence runs on chips, but chips run on electricity. Tata Power’s chief executive says India has a plan for keeping the lights on as that demand climbs.

On October 1, 2026, CEO Praveer Sinha said the country is positioned to absorb rising AI-driven electricity demand. The plan rests on adding energy storage and expanding renewable generation.

Storage is the whole strategy

Sinha’s pitch centers on two technologies: battery energy storage systems, known as BESS, and pumped storage projects, or PSP.

India’s battery buildout is growing, though from a small base. The country added 0.5 GWh of BESS capacity in 2025, a 26% increase year over year.

The target is far larger. Indian government estimates put the country’s storage requirement at roughly 410 GWh by FY32. Pumped storage is projected to cover about 42% of that need.

What Tata Power is actually building

Tata Power’s flagship storage effort is the Bhivpuri pumped storage project in Maharashtra, a 1,000 MW facility. Of that capacity, 324 MW has been contracted through the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The company is also planning a separate 1,800 MW pumped storage project at Shirwata.

On the battery side, Tata Power has started deploying BESS units at renewable energy sites across the country.

The company’s clean and green energy portfolio now stands at approximately 17.5 GW, a figure that includes planned projects. Tata Power has also earmarked considerable capital spending for renewables, hybrid projects, and energy storage.

The demand side of the equation

Data centers in the country are anticipated to grow by about 30% year over year in 2026. Those facilities run around the clock, and AI workloads tend to push power use higher still.

India’s electricity consumption is projected to rise by more than 570 TWh over the next five years.

What this means for the sector

Execution is the real variable. Pumped storage projects are large civil engineering efforts, and they take time to bring online. Only part of Bhivpuri’s capacity is contracted so far, and Shirwata remains in the planning stage.

Batteries can be deployed faster, but India’s 2025 additions show how early the market still is. Scaling from sub-gigawatt-hour annual additions toward a 410 GWh target will require a sharp acceleration.

The things to watch are fairly concrete. Track how much of Bhivpuri’s remaining capacity gets contracted, whether Shirwata moves from plan to construction, and how quickly India’s annual BESS additions grow from that 0.5 GWh baseline.