Finance first, batteries twice: what India's DISCOMs will discuss at DUM 2026

The first session at India's 10th Distribution Utility Meet is about money: DISCOM financial transformation and capital market readiness. Two of the seven sessions on the program name battery storage outright. Senior officials from 40+ DISCOMs across India are expected at the two-day event in Jaipur, which opens on October 27.

The 10th Distribution Utility Meet will take place on 27-28 October 2026 in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) as organizer. According to ISGF, the host utilities are all three of Rajasthan's distribution companies, or DISCOMs: Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam (JVVNL), Jodhpur Vidyut Vitran Nigam (JdVVNL) and Ajmer Vidyut Vitran Nigam (AVVNL). The event is supported by the Ministry of Power, NITI Aayog, Rajasthan's energy department, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and the All India DISCOMs Association (AIDA).

Taken together, the agenda suggests what is on distributors' desks: paying for upgrades, storage on local grids and large new loads. That could make it useful to anyone who sells into Indian distribution networks or plans for them. The meet's theme, according to trade outlet Exhibition Showcase, is "Collaborative Growth."

Seven sessions, two on batteries

Over two days, the meet will hold seven thematic sessions:

1. DISCOMs financial transformation and capital market readiness
2. Scaling digital intelligence and advanced smart meter data analytics
3. How renewables can help handle new and emerging loads while keeping supply reliable and power quality high
4. CEA standards for solar PV and BESS, along with flexibility solutions for distribution networks
5. Climate resilience and securing the physical assets of DISCOMs
6. India Energy Stack, data exchange framework, cyber security and data privacy for digital grids
7. BESS applications in power distribution: select case studies

Storage turns up twice. It sits beside distribution-network flexibility and the CEA's standards for solar PV and battery energy storage systems (BESS), then gets a session built entirely on case studies. Renewables get a third slot, framed around new and emerging loads and keeping supply reliable and power quality steady. Session 2 is Scaling Digital Intelligence and Advanced Smart Meter Data Analytics, which suggests a focus on using meter data.

Finance leads the running order, ahead of every technology topic on the list. Exhibition Showcase likewise expects the conference to cover utility performance and the financial sustainability of DISCOMs alongside grid modernisation and digitalisation. For a supplier, that ordering suggests the conversation about any upgrade may start with how it gets paid for.

In the announcement, ISGF president Reji Kumar Pillai tied these themes together. He said utilities are moving "from turnaround to transformation" as their networks take on smart meters, distributed renewables and storage, along with large new loads like AI data centres and EVs. That change, he said, gives peer learning among DISCOM leaders more value.

Read beside a first session on capital market readiness, Pillai's "transformation" framing suggests finance is still part of the job, not a chapter that closed with the turnaround. The technology on his list, from smart meters to storage, maps directly onto sessions 2, 4 and 7.

For suppliers selling solar PV equipment, battery systems or meter-data software into Indian distribution networks, sessions 2, 4, 6 and 7 could be the most relevant. Session 2 is the meter-data slot. Session 4 covers the CEA standards. Session 6 covers the India Energy Stack (IES), the data exchange framework, cyber security and data privacy for digital grids, topics that could shape how DISCOMs choose digital grid products.

Who fills the hall in Jaipur

ISGF expects more than 500 participants this year, including senior officials from 40+ DISCOMs and more than 100 speakers from utilities, regulators, policy bodies, research groups and technology providers. The 9th edition, which took place in Mumbai on 04-05 November 2025, is the obvious baseline. ISGF's event page records it this way.

The PR Newswire release describes the Mumbai edition as drawing over 600 participants, including senior officers from 45 DISCOMs. ISGF's page gives 688 participants and 45-plus DISCOMs.

The longer record shows how the meet has scaled. ISGF lists DUM 2023 in Kochi at 350+ participants, 20 exhibitors and officials from 45 DISCOMs. DUM 2024 in Lucknow drew 600+ participants, 38 exhibitors and partners, and officials from 40 DISCOMs.

Against that run, the 2026 target of 500-plus participants sits below the 688 recorded in Mumbai, while the 100-plus speaker figure is well above the 65 who spoke there. If both projections hold, Jaipur would put more voices on stage for a smaller room than its predecessor did.

The release lists Oracle, Eaton, Phoenix Contact, Kimbal, Yitran Technologies, Taurus Powertronics, Brodersen Systems and REConnect Energy among the exhibitors. The full list runs to 27 names, adding BENTEC, WorkOnGrid, Reformtech, RMC India, Enspar Sustainability, Madhav Engineers, Elektrolites, Radius Synergies, Stelmec, Deliverain Research & Solutions, Future Grid, SM Systems and Pelocal.

Not everyone on the floor is a vendor. JVVNL, The Tata Power Company, Tata Power Delhi Distribution and Chandigarh Power Distribution are exhibiting too, as are Power Foundation of India and Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation. That suggests the exhibition doubles as a place where utilities show their own work, not only where suppliers pitch to them.

Thematic session partners are Oracle, Enspar and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) serves as exchange partner, while Pelocal is the powered-by partner and Wirepas the delegate bag partner. Technology innovation partners are WorkOnGrid, Eaton, Reformtech, REConnect Energy, Radius Synergies and Stelmec.

A renewables state as host

The release argues for Jaipur directly. It calls Rajasthan one of India's leading renewable energy states and presents the city as the right place to discuss bringing renewables, storage and new large loads into the distribution grid. Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RRECL) is the event's renewable energy partner, and Power Foundation of India is the knowledge partner.

The co-host list reaches beyond Rajasthan: BSES Rajdhani Power, BSES Yamuna Power, Tata Power Delhi Distribution, The Tata Power Company, Noida Power Company and Chandigarh Power Distribution. A storage or analytics vendor could hear from utilities in Delhi, Noida and Chandigarh as well as the three Rajasthan hosts.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma is expected to open the meet with Minister of State for Energy Heera Lal Nagar on October 27 at The Lalit, Jaipur. Exhibition Showcase lists two more inauguration speakers: Ranvir Prasad, chairman of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation (UPPCL) and general secretary of AIDA, and Arti Dogra, Rajasthan's energy secretary and chairman and managing director of JVVNL. Dogra's dual role means the state government and the lead host utility share a single seat at the opening.

Working with local utilities is how the meet has always travelled. ISGF credits BESCOM for the first edition, Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure for Mumbai in 2018, and TPDDL, BRPL and BYPL for New Delhi. Later editions ran with the Tata Power Discoms in Odisha, KSEB Limited and Kerala's energy department in Kochi, UPPCL and UPREV in Lucknow, and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Limited with Tata Power for Mumbai last year.

Where the storage evidence will show up

A session title is a topic. It is not a tender, and nothing in the announcement links any session to a procurement round. Taken narrowly, the agenda shows what DISCOM leaders want to discuss in public. That still tells suppliers something, but it is not a buying signal.

Session 7, BESS Applications in Power Distribution: Select Case Studies, could give the clearest picture of how storage is being used in Indian distribution networks. The case-study format fits the meet's founding logic. ISGF's own description of DUM says utilities should not repeat each other's mistakes but learn from each other's experiences.

Conference Index's listing pushes that logic past India's borders. It says experts from leading utilities in the USA, Europe, South Korea and Japan will be invited to take part in DUM 2026 and share their experiences, so some of the comparisons delegates hear across the two days may come from abroad.

The two storage sessions also do different work. Session 4 puts the CEA's solar PV and BESS standards in the same room as flexibility solutions, which is where the rules meet the network problem. Session 7 is where results from the field get aired. A battery vendor who follows both could test its pitch against the standards and the case studies at once, and the first chance to do that comes when the meet opens at The Lalit on October 27.