Entry Before Rules: Parallel Licences in Haryana, Noida and Beyond

Parallel distribution licensing has moved from a legal provision to live regulatory dockets. In October 2026, Haryana's regulator granted a parallel licence for Gurugram and Nuh, Uttar Pradesh opened public consultation on a data centre park licence in Noida, and a Karnataka push was withdrawn after opposition. The common thread is that regulators are approving entry before the rules on sharing networks and costs are settled.

Haryana sets a precedent in Gurugram and Nuh

On 19 October 2026, the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission granted a parallel distribution licence covering the Gurugram and Nuh districts, giving consumers an alternative electricity supplier. Mercom reports a 25-year term. The report's tags point to Eleven Power and DHBVNL, but the accessible text does not describe their roles.

The grant follows a process visible earlier in the year. According to Powerline's analysis of the Ministry of Power framework, in July 2026 HERC formed a three-member expert committee to examine Eleven Power's proposal for the same two districts. The company cited about Rs 47 billion in investment and 80% renewable sourcing.

Noida: a licence built around a data centre park

In Uttar Pradesh, the commission has taken a different route. SolarQuarter reports that UPERC initiated the legal process on an application by Adani Energy Solutions Step Eleven Limited for the Data Centre Park at Plot 20, Sector 62, Noida. The park developer is DC Development Noida Limited, which appointed the applicant to design, develop and operate the park's internal distribution network.

The applicants rely on the Uttar Pradesh Data Centre Policy, 2021, arguing that it lets a developer, its designated operator or its associate seek a licence. UPERC asked about the applicant's legal status, its link to the developer and its technical and financial qualifications. It limited initial consideration to areas with valid permissions and Letters of Comfort, leaving adjoining plots and a proposed Sector 80 facility for later. The applicants have also undertaken that the licence will be surrendered if the developer stops operating the data centre.

UPERC directed public notices in at least two English and two Hindi dailies, a 30-day window for objections, no-objection certificates from relevant authorities and publication of the petition on the applicant's website.

Competition without a settled network model

The draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2025 would let licensees serve the same area by sharing an existing discom's network. As Powerline summarises, incumbents would keep ownership, operation and maintenance, and the new entrant would pay regulated wheeling charges. A new licensee could still build its own network where the state commission permits, and all licensees would remain bound by the universal service obligation.

Several 2026 decisions show how contested this is:

• On 11 March 2026, APTEL upheld MERC's approval of Tata Power's phased network rollout in an area where BEST is the incumbent, holding that prior network ownership is not a statutory prerequisite for a distribution licence.
• Tata Power filed five petitions for parallel licences across 19 Karnataka districts and withdrew them in July after opposition from discoms and consumer and engineer bodies.
• In Goa, JERC clarified in July that the state electricity department would remain the incumbent licensee.

Powerline lists the open concerns: cherry-picking of profitable, dense consumers, stranded networks and power purchase commitments if consumers migrate, and unresolved treatment of cross-subsidy and regulatory assets. It also flags unclear rules on switching, metering, billing, scheduling, settlement and loss apportionment. It notes that cost-plus regulation could still encourage duplicate networks. Karnataka consumer representatives cited tariffs of about Rs 5.80 per unit for state discoms against Rs 11 to 12 for high-end consumers.

What it means for utilities

For incumbent DISCOMs, the Haryana and Noida cases show that entry is arriving first in segments with concentrated, high-value load such as urban districts and data centres. These are the segments that carry cross-subsidy. Revenue and load data by consumer category, feeder and substation will decide how credibly an incumbent can argue stranded-cost claims before a commission.

Network sharing also depends on data. Wheeling charges, switching, scheduling and loss apportionment all require reliable consumer indexing, metering and feeder-level energy accounting. DISCOMs that cannot show these numbers will negotiate from a weak position, and new entrants with clean digital systems will set the benchmark.

Regulators face the opposite task: licence conditions such as service-area limits, surrender triggers and universal service obligations need to be written before, not after, the first customers migrate.

Key takeaways

• HERC granted a 25-year parallel licence for Gurugram and Nuh on 19 October 2026, a recent state-level precedent.
• UPERC's Noida process ties a licence to a data centre park and a state policy, with a 30-day objection window.
• The draft bill's network-sharing model leaves cross-subsidy, stranded cost and operating rules unresolved.
• Tata Power's Karnataka withdrawal shows that incumbent and consumer opposition can still stop applications.
• Feeder-level, category-wise data is the practical basis for wheeling charges and migration planning.

Sources

• Haryana regulator grants parallel power distribution licence for Gurugram, Nuh (Mercom India)
• UPERC advances Adani Energy Solutions parallel distribution licence application for Noida data centre park (SolarQuarter)
• Parallel Licensing: MoP's proposed framework aims to introduce competition in the distribution segment (Powerline)