For the most part of the 20th century, planning broadly involved estimating future electricity demand, adding ever larger conventional generating power and connecting these to load centres through transmission lines.
Electricity was supplied to consumers by a monopoly, a vertically integrated utility. Pricing was based on the principle of cross subsidy, wherein large industrial and commercial consumers paid higher tariffs to ensure affordable tariffs for agriculture and households. However, all that is rapidly changing, largely due to national policy initiatives and global techno-economic changes.
Competitiveness of renewables coupled with reducing costs of battery storage and rising costs of coal-based power means an increasing share of renewable energy in the supply mix.
