New Delhi, Feb. 18 -- We have gotten so accustomed to the near-universal availability of electricity that we barely spare a thought for the infrastructure behind it. Generating stations dotted across the length and breadth of India produce power that is fed into an electricity grid which carries it to our homes and offices. The entire system works so reliably that we have come to assume there will always be a socket on the wall to charge our phone from, no matter where we are in the country.

The core design of our energy ecosystem hasn't changed in over a century. Whenever new technologies and systems became available, they were bolted on, like a patchwork job, without altering the way the system works.

Since much of our energy infrastr...