India’s energy demand is entering a phase in which the quality of its power infrastructure may matter as much as the quantity of generation it adds. Christopher Wood, Jefferies’ global head of equity strategy, has described energy as India’s strongest structural growth story, while Hitachi Energy India has presented a more specific demand outlook: total final energy demand could rise 50% and electricity demand could double to 3,365 TWh by 2035.
That projection places transmission, renewable generation, storage and demand management at the centre of India’s next industrial and urban transition. It also shifts the question from whether India needs more power to whether its grid, technology suppliers and institutions can absorb a much larger electricity system reliably and affordably.
Wood’s assessment, published in Jefferies’ GREED & Fear report, is built around the private-sector expansion of electrification, particularly through renewable energy led by solar. The report identifies Hitachi Energy India as a “picks-and-shovels” play because of its expertise in transmission. The framing is significant: the infrastructure required to move and balance electricity could become as important as the plants that generate it.
According to the Hitachi Energy India presentation cited in the report, electricity’s share of total final energy demand is expected to rise from 19% in 2023 to 25% in 2035. The change would represent a deeper electrification of the economy, with renewables, energy storage and smart demand management supporting a larger role for electricity in industrial and commercial activity.
The figures do not establish a guaranteed outcome. They are a company outlook presented at the Jefferies India Forum and reported through Jefferies’ research. But they identify the scale of the planning challenge. A doubling of electricity demand would require expansion across the power chain, including generation capacity, transmission corridors, substations, storage systems and digital tools that help match supply with changing demand.
For cities, the implications extend beyond electricity bills and power plants. Urban economies depend on reliable electricity for housing, offices, manufacturing, transport systems, water supply, communications and construction. As more activities shift from direct fossil-fuel use to electricity, interruptions or network constraints can affect multiple urban services at the same time. The supplied report does not provide a city-level demand breakdown, but its national projection points to a power system that will increasingly shape how urban growth is supported.
The transmission emphasis is particularly important because renewable generation is not always located near the centres of consumption. Solar projects require land and strong grid connections, while electricity demand is concentrated in cities, industrial clusters and transport networks. The report does not specify the transmission capacity or investment required to connect future generation to consumers. It does, however, identify transmission capability as a central commercial opportunity within the broader energy build-out.
Storage is the second major constraint embedded in the outlook. Wood cited China’s experience, where economies of scale in grid construction and advances in battery storage have supported the expansion of renewable energy. He said solar is already cheaper than coal in China because of battery storage technology. Whether India can reproduce that cost trajectory will depend partly on its ability to access and develop storage technology at scale.
The report also shows that technology access is not a settled issue. Bloomberg reported in May that Reliance Industries was in talks with Chinese battery manufacturer CATL to procure components for battery energy storage systems. Jefferies’ GREED & Fear report said Reliance had not succeeded in procuring technology from CATL or other Chinese battery makers. Indian companies including Exide Industries, Amara Raja and Waaree Energies were reported to have secured Chinese battery technology, while Energy In Motion, an associate company of Ravindra Energy, partnered with CATL for the supply of 500 MWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric heavy-duty trucks in India.
These examples indicate a supply-chain landscape that is developing through a combination of domestic manufacturing, foreign technology and company-level partnerships. They do not yet establish a single national model for battery storage. The report also leaves open how much India will ultimately benefit from Chinese battery technology, a question that has implications for cost, industrial capability and the pace of renewable integration.
The policy challenge is therefore broader than adding renewable capacity. India’s energy transition requires coordination between generation, transmission, storage and demand. It also involves decisions over technology procurement, domestic manufacturing and the ability of the grid to manage variable renewable supply. The supplied material does not identify specific policy instruments, funding allocations or implementation agencies for the 2035 projections, so the institutional pathway remains less clear than the demand ambition.
That gap matters because energy systems are built through multiple institutions rather than a single project authority. Generation companies, transmission utilities, distribution networks, equipment manufacturers, regulators and large consumers all influence whether new power reaches users. Smart demand management, cited in the Hitachi presentation, would add another layer by using technology and consumption patterns to balance the system.
The data presented in the report provides a useful measure of the transition’s scale. Total final energy demand is projected to rise 50% by 2035, while electricity demand is projected to double to 3,365 TWh. Electricity’s share of final energy demand would increase by six percentage points, from 19% in 2023 to 25% in 2035. Together, these figures describe both expansion and substitution: India would consume more energy overall while electricity takes a larger share of that consumption.
The manufacturing connection is equally important. Wood argued that lower power costs enabled by renewable energy and storage could support India’s manufacturing ambitions. The report notes that India is already second only to China in several traditional manufacturing categories, including crude steel, cement, ammonia, mobile phones and solar modules. Yet the production gap remains wide. China produced 960.8 million tonnes of crude steel and 1,700 million tonnes of cement last year, compared with India’s 164.9 million tonnes of crude steel and 470 million tonnes of cement.
These comparisons show why power infrastructure is being treated as an industrial issue rather than only an environmental one. Manufacturing scale requires dependable energy, and lower-cost electricity can influence the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries. At the same time, the report does not quantify how much cheaper Indian power could become, or how future storage costs would affect industrial production. Those outcomes remain dependent on technology, infrastructure and implementation.
The urban question is whether India’s cities and industrial regions can expand without making electricity supply a bottleneck. More buildings, transport systems, factories and digital services will place additional demands on the grid. Renewable energy can increase supply diversity, but it also requires transmission and storage systems capable of managing when and where power is available.
The evidence in the report confirms a strong structural thesis: India’s energy demand is expected to grow sharply, electricity is projected to occupy a larger share of final energy use, and the transition creates opportunities beyond power generation in transmission, batteries and grid management. It does not confirm that the projected targets will be achieved, that storage costs will fall at the pace seen in China, or that technology access will be straightforward. The developments to monitor are therefore concrete: progress in transmission expansion, storage procurement, domestic battery capability and the ability of India’s power system to connect renewable supply with expanding urban and manufacturing demand.
