India, May 4 -- India's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) for 2031-2035 - a key goal of which is 60% of installed power capacity in the country being non-fossil-fuel-based - announced amid rising geopolitical implications for energy security. The war against Iran has underscored a critical vulnerability: Global energy flows remain fragile and dependence carries risk. For India, energy security can no longer be defined by access alone. It must now feature resilience from within. But does adding more non-fossil capacity deliver that? The current scenario suggests otherwise. Non-fossil sources already account for nearly half of installed capacity, with over 250 GW deployed, yet contribute only about a quarter of actual power generation. The question, therefore, is no longer how much renewable capacity India can build, but whether that capacity can deliver reliable, affordable, round-the-clock power in a world of growing external uncertainty. The answer lies in three structural elements of the power system: How the grid is built, how electricity is valued, and how distribution is governed. First, the grid must be redesigned for transition. India's power system was built around coal -- centralised, predictable and geographically fixed. Renewable energy (RE) is changing that logic. India's electricity demand is rising fastest in coal-dependent states such as Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh, driven by industrial growth and urbanisation. Chhattisgarh alone is seeing peak demand grow by around 7% annually. This is happening even as renewable surplus is being curtailed in high RE states. Between May and December 2025, 2.3 terawatt-hours of solar power was curtailed. In Rajasthan, curtailment has reached 50%, with 3.3 GW lying idle - this power could have met demand elsewhere. The constraint is within states. While inter-state transmission has expanded, intra-state networks remain too weak to absorb or move renewable energy efficiently. The result is a system where surplus and shortage coexist - clean power is curtailed even as other regions rely on costlier thermal generation. The next phase of RE development must shift focus. Beyond transmission corridors, India needs stronger intra-state systems - substations, last-mile connectivity, and networks that can handle variability. Reliability, however, cannot come from infrastructure alone. It must be built into the system operations. With solar generation peaking during the day and demand rising later, the grid needs flexibility. Solar and wind power generation must be backed with enough storage to bolster renewable energy dispatchability. Second, electricity markets must evolve from being commodity supply focussed to becoming a system of services. India's power markets were designed for a coal-based system where reliability was implicit. Electricity was valued simply as energy, units generated and consumed. Renewables disrupt this model. They make energy cheaper, but they also mean variable supply. Solar tariffs have fallen to Rs.2-3 per unit - among the lowest globally. But cheap energy does not translate automatically into reliable supply. Ensuring power is available when needed requires additional services - storage, flexible generation, and demand response. Yet, the market does not adequately value these. As renewable penetration increases, the system needs more flexibility, but investment in flexibility remains uncertain because there is no clear price signal. The way forward is to recognise that electricity is not one product, but three: The first is energy (the electricity produced); the second is capacity (the assurance that supply will be available during peak demand); the third is flexibility (the ability to respond quickly to fluctuations in supply and demand). Global experience points in this direction. Mature power systems have already moved towards differentiated markets where availability and responsiveness are valued alongside energy. In the UK, the capacity market ensures that generators are paid for being available during peak periods. In the US, markets such as Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) explicitly price ancillary services that stabilise the grid. Separating and pricing these services would fundamentally change how the system operates. It would allow system operators to ensure reliability explicitly and create viable revenue streams for storage and hybrid projects, accelerating their deployment. Third, the transition must confront its weakest link - distribution. India's distribution companies (discoms) remain the weakest link in the power chain. Financial stress is chronic, with accumulated losses hovering around Rs.1 lakh crore. Discoms are required to serve very different consumers within a single framework. They supply power to industrial consumers at near cost-reflective tariffs while delivering heavily-subsidised electricity to agriculture and households. The resulting cross-subsidies blur the true cost of service and mask inefficiencies. Repeated reform efforts have provided temporary relief but left the underlying design intact. As a result, the system continues to recycle the same problem. A more durable solution lies in separating what is commercially viable from what is socially necessary. Feeder-level segregation, particularly between agricultural and non-agricultural supply, is a critical first step. States that have begun this process, such as Maharashtra, are demonstrating that it can improve both transparency and operational efficiency. Solarising agricultural feeders builds on this approach. By shifting farm demand to dedicated solar systems, states can provide reliable daytime power while making subsidies explicit and measurable. It also enables the transition towards direct benefit transfers, replacing opaque cross-subsidies with targeted support. India's energy transition is entering a more demanding phase. The early years were defined by scale, while the next chapter will be defined by reliability. The true measure of progress will not be the megawatts India installs, but the electricity it can rely on across regions, seasons, and in an increasingly uncertain world. Building that system will require a willingness to reimagine the fundamentals of how power is produced, priced and delivered....