Smart Wat resilience initiative: Abu Dhabi firm and BSES Rajdhani Power sign pact to modernise Delhi grid
Abu Dhabi’s Smart Wat signs ‘Muruna’ resilience deal with BSES Rajdhani Power to deploy AI, battery storage and distributed energy to modernise Delhi’s grid.
Abu Dhabi-based Smart Wat and India’s BSES Rajdhani Power signed a strategic agreement in New Delhi to deploy the Smart Wat resilience initiative across the Delhi distribution network. The deal, endorsed at a ceremony hosted by the UAE embassy and attended by Ambassador Dr. Abdulnasser Al-Shehali, commits UAE technology to help Delhi build a smarter, more flexible electricity grid. The initiative combines artificial intelligence, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and distributed energy resources (DERs) to support demand-side flexibility and operational resilience.
Agreement signed in New Delhi
The memorandum was formalised during an event at the UAE embassy in New Delhi, where officials from both companies and the UAE ambassador marked the launch of pilot collaboration under the initiative named “Muruna” in Arabic. Smart Wat, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, will work directly with BSES Rajdhani Power to translate Emirati-developed technologies into operational solutions for the Delhi distribution system. The partnership is framed as a strategic transfer of innovation aimed at addressing the strain on networks in rapidly growing economies.
AI-powered control centre and technical scope
A central pillar of the project is the establishment of an AI-driven operations and control centre to orchestrate distributed resources and storage in real time. The platform will provide utilities with continuous monitoring, analytics-led dispatch capabilities, and an expandable architecture to support future grid services. By integrating BESS and DERs with advanced AI, the companies expect to unlock new operational efficiencies and improve response to peak demand events without compromising reliability.
Priority substations and grid assessments completed
Smart Wat and BSES completed joint technical assessments to map priority substations and identify network bottlenecks within the Delhi grid before advancing to implementation planning. Those assessments determined which nodes would most benefit from demand-side flexibility and where storage and distributed generation could relieve congestion. The targeted approach is intended to accelerate measurable improvements during the pilot phase while limiting disruption to consumers.
Operational model designed for nationwide scale-up
The initiative is designed as a repeatable operational model that can be scaled across India if pilot results meet performance expectations. Smart Wat officials said the model enables gradual replication, allowing utilities to adopt demand flexibility measures incrementally while building out control and monitoring capabilities. This stepwise approach is meant to help utilities manage growing electricity demand sustainably and to speed the transition toward smarter, more resilient networks.
Statements from company leadership
Dr. Sameh Al-Khatib, co-founder and CEO of Smart Wat, described the agreement as a major milestone for transferring Emirati innovation to the Indian market. He said the Muruna initiative was developed in Abu Dhabi to address the challenge of strengthening grid resilience and sustainability in fast-growing economies without compromising reliability. Abhishek Ranjan, CEO of BSES Rajdhani Power, commented that the collaboration will support the company’s efforts to meet rising demand and advance its sustainability objectives as Delhi continues to expand.
Economic and diplomatic context of the partnership
The Smart Wat–BSES collaboration forms part of a wider uptick in commercial cooperation between the UAE and India, where bilateral trade has surpassed the $100 billion mark and both governments have set a joint target of $200 billion by 2032. Observers note that energy and technology partnerships such as this one reinforce broader strategic ties while creating practical pathways for knowledge transfer and industrial cooperation. The embassy-hosted signing underlined the diplomatic backing for private-sector engagement in critical infrastructure development.
The pilot phase now moves into execution planning, with the partners preparing timelines for hardware deployment, control-centre commissioning and operational trials on selected substations. If early trials validate expected benefits in peak shaving, loss reduction and operational agility, the project could expand to cover larger portions of Delhi’s distribution network and offer a template for other Indian utilities.