Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has approved a 400/220 kV GIS substation at Ambernath under a dedicated infrastructure framework to support a green integrated data centre park developed by Lodha Developers. The approval aims to enable timely power connectivity for nearly 3,000 megawatt (3,000 MW) of forthcoming data centre load in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. MERC authorised execution through a dedicated distribution facility to keep the transmission assets exclusive to park consumers.

The Commission allowed Maharashtra State Transmission Utility (STU) and Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCL) to implement the Ambernath project with Lodha funding capital expenditure and reimbursing operation and maintenance costs over the asset life. The regulator held that neither capital cost nor recurring operation and maintenance charges will be passed on to general transmission users through tariffs. The project followed the annulment of a tariff based competitive bidding process in April 2026 when the discovered tariff was deemed abnormally low and commercially unviable.

Submissions to MERC indicated that the STU has granted grid connectivity for around 1,450 MW in the Ambernath region while an additional 1,500 MW is under consideration, taking projected load to nearly 2,950 MW by 2028. MERC found that the Ambernath substation qualifies as a Dedicated Distribution Facility under state supply code regulations and that no separate regulatory approval is required for execution under the DDF framework since the developer will bear the full project cost. The Commission directed STU and MSETCL to proceed with an option under which Lodha will construct the infrastructure under MSETCL technical supervision and transfer the assets to the state utility free of cost for operation and maintenance.

Lodha told MERC it has signed memoranda of understanding with the Maharashtra government for about Rs 1.3 trillion (Rs 1.3 tn) to develop a data centre park at Palava and to attract global operators including Amazon Web Services and ST Telemedia. MERC said the project is strategically important for Maharashtra's bid to become a major data centre destination and urged prioritisation of transmission infrastructure to meet commissioning timelines in 2028.