ET Bureau: REC Ltd on Tuesday showcased the first live demonstration of a peer-to-peer energy trading pilot under the proposed India Energy Stack (IES), in initial steps towards a more decentralised and digitally enabled electricity market. The demonstration was held at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
In the pilot transaction, a farmer from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh sold surplus solar power directly to a garment shop owner in Delhi using a blockchain-enabled digital platform developed under the IES framework, a statement from program nodal agency REC Ltd said.
Check the latest updates of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 here
The transaction was aimed at demonstrating how the India Energy Stack, which is conceived as a digital public infrastructure for the power sector, could enable direct energy transactions between small generators and consumers.
The framework seeks to move beyond the traditional model in which consumers remain passive recipients of grid-supplied electricity.
The pilot allows the so-called “prosumers”, which are households, small businesses and farmers who generate renewable energy, to trade surplus power directly with other users through standardised digital protocols.
REC, under the power ministry, has been involved in financing and supporting digital and infrastructure initiatives across the power sector.
The demonstration marks one of the most visible applications so far of the India Energy Stack concept, which draws from the broader digital public infrastructure approach used in sectors such as payments and identity.
The power ministry has earlier said it will undertake a 12-month ‘proof of concept’ to demonstrate IES through real-world use cases in partnership with selected utilities.
This includes piloting the Utility Intelligence Platform (UIP), a modular, analytics-driven application built on IES to support utilities, policymakers, and consumers with real-time insights and smarter energy management.
To guide these above initiatives, the ministry has constituted a dedicated task force comprising experts from the technology, power sector, and regulatory domains, which will steer the development, pilot implementation, and nationwide scale-up of the IES.
The pilot demonstration comes at a time when policymakers are examining ways to modernise electricity markets to accommodate higher renewable penetration and increased consumer participation.
