The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has approved the development of a 400/220 kV GIS substation at Ambernath under a dedicated infrastructure framework to support a proposed green data centre park. The project is being developed by Lodha Developers. This will pave the way for timely power connectivity to nearly 3 GW of upcoming data centre load in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The regulator said the arrangement would ensure that neither the capital cost nor recurring operation and maintenance expenses of the infrastructure are passed on to the general body of transmission users through tariffs.
The Commission allowed Maharashtra State Transmission Utility (STU) and Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCL) to execute the Ambernath project through a dedicated distribution facility (DDF) mechanism, with Lodha Developers funding the entire capital expenditure and reimbursing operation and maintenance costs over the life of the asset.
The project gained urgency after a tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) process was annulled in April 2026 when the discovered tariff was found to be abnormally low and commercially unviable. STU argued that any further delay could jeopardise the timely availability of transmission infrastructure required for large-scale data centre investments expected to commence operations by 2028.
STU has already granted grid connectivity for around 1,450 MW of load in the Ambernath region, while an additional 1,500 MW is under consideration, taking the total projected load to nearly 2,950 MW by 2028.
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