How Andhra Pradesh plans to power its AI ambitions: deemed distribution licences for data centres

📌 Summary:

• Data centres — the facilities powering AI — are among an economy's largest electricity consumers, forcing governments to rethink how they access and procure power.
• Andhra Pradesh, which has large AI ambitions, has announced a first-of-its-kind move: letting data centres operate as power distributors by granting them a Deemed Distribution Licence (DDL).
• A DDL lets an entity buy and distribute its own electricity without a separate discom licence.
• DDLs are not new in India — they have been issued to government entities, SEZs, ports, airports and industrial enclaves; the Railways was a deemed licensee for about a decade.
• Significance: shows how state energy policy is adapting to the AI/data-centre electricity boom and the push to attract digital-infrastructure investment.

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (Indian Economy — infrastructure, industrial policy, energy access for digital economy; cooperative-competitive federalism in attracting investment).

📝 Prelims Facts:

• DDL = Deemed Distribution Licence under India's electricity framework.
• DDLs have historically gone to SEZs, ports, airports, industrial enclaves and (formerly) the Railways.
• Andhra Pradesh is the first state to extend DDL status to data centres.

🔑 Key Term: Deemed Distribution Licence (DDL) — a status under the Electricity Act allowing a specified entity to buy and distribute electricity within its area without obtaining a separate distribution licence.