A gigawatt in Odisha, and what the per-MW numbers show

Odisha clears 1.24 GW in one round

On 23 September the state's high-level clearance authority approved three datacenter projects: Adani at 1 GW in Naraj, HCLTech with Sarvam in Khordha (120 MW, scaling to 300 MW), and Sentraforge AI at 120 MW in Puri. Together that is 1.24 GW and about ₹1.41 lakh crore of stated investment.

For scale: Mumbai, the largest datacenter market in the country, runs 890 MW today. The top seven markets together run 1,789 MW, with vacancy at 14.9% (Cushman and Wakefield, H1 2026). A single site in Odisha has been cleared for more capacity than Mumbai has built.

The east coast is filling in beyond Odisha. Andhra Pradesh's project list now carries a 512 MW AI factory at Bheemunipatnam and a 100 MW campus at Rambilli, and the I-2SEA subsea cable is due to land at Machilipatnam and South Chennai in 2029. Capacity, land and cable are moving to the same coastline.

Uttar Pradesh: Jewar is late

The 400/220 kV Jewar substation (2x500 MVA), which serves the airport belt, has asked the state regulator, UPERC, to extend its commissioning date. It had an 18-month build clock from March 2024. The hearing is on 17 November. The next 400 kV node, Sector-28 in the Yamuna Expressway authority (YEIDA) area (3x500 MVA, ₹629 crore), goes to bid on 2 November and sits in the state plan for FY 2028-29. The plan itself is large: ₹38,520 crore and 137 new substations over five years.

The UP Data Centre Policy 2026 has been in force since 9 July. It gives ten years of electricity duty exemption, 25 years of transmission and wheeling relief at 50-100%, dual-grid cost reimbursement and two-feeder supply. The transmission and wheeling relief is capped at the first eight parks or an extra 2 GW.

Telangana: large commitments, record demand

TCS HyperVault has acquired 264 acres in Hyderabad for a campus of up to 1 GW. Two more blocks of 170 and 10 acres are on record in the same Future City belt. Microsoft formally opened its Hyderabad cloud region on 24 September.

Statewide peak demand hit a record 19,892 MW on 30 September, passing the 19,543 MW set on 9 September, and the Hyderabad distribution company (discom) set its own record of 12,299 MW. The discom is developing dual-source supply for datacenters and has named the Thimmapur-Kandukur corridor. The state generator is tendering a 187.5 MW / 750 MWh battery at Maheswaram, the nearest 400 kV node (bids 23 October).

Open access cost, October 2026 to March 2027

Tamil Nadu's regulator had no quorum from 2 June until it was reconstituted on 18 September. The FY 2026-27 tariff order is more than three months overdue and the state datacenter policy has lapsed. Chennai has 214 MW operational and is running without a current tariff order or a current policy.

In Maharashtra, the state regulator MERC has seven draft rules out and comments close on 12 October. In-kind banking would end. A working estimate from the drafts, not a figure the regulator has published, is a fixed banking and standby charge of about ₹139 per kW per month, plus ₹3-4 per unit variable (tentative). Green open access would start from 100 kW, and new behind-the-meter systems above 100 kW would carry a storage obligation. Separately, the state has widened its green datacenter park scheme to 20 parks, cut the green energy floor to 51% and offered ₹1 per unit off the tariff.

Gujarat and Karnataka

Gujarat told its Assembly it holds about 17 GW of datacenter expressions of interest from 17 parties against a 7.5 GW target. Grid tenders are moving more slowly: the Dholera-II 400 kV package was due to close on 7 October after a 47-day slip, and two STATCOM packages are on their third extension.

Karnataka's incentives were reported in the press for the first time, including up to ₹20 crore for PUE of 1.20 or better. The government order is not yet out. The regulator granted the state's first two private 400 kV transmission licences, and the Kadandale 400/220 kV substation is complete.

Slip watch

Net read

A strong week for announcements and a slow one for the grid behind them.

• What looks solid: demand, the arrival of the east coast as a datacenter region, and state policy that improves with each round.
• What to discount: headline investment figures, any date that depends on a 400 kV substation not yet awarded, and any open access model built before this winter's orders.