Today, the transmission lines earn steady fee income from carrying power across the grid, but the capital tied up in building them stays locked in place and can’t easily be freed up for new projects. He linked this to a problem Maharashtra faces today: the state generates a large surplus of solar power, but lacks the grid capacity to move it to where and when it’s needed.
Pardeshi said the state could potentially solve this by tokenizing a portion of its transmission assets, allowing investors to receive a share of the income they generate while providing the state with fresh capital for new infrastructure.
“The transmission lines can themselves be tokenized — not fully, but even 40%, 50% of that,” Pardeshi said. “People who hold that token can get part of the income which Maharashtra Transco Company is getting… the new money that it generates from the people who buy the token can help us to build more transmission lines, to build more solar energy storage centers.”
Tokenization refers to putting traditional assets onto blockchain, a process meant to boost transparency, broaden investor participation and improve the plumbing of financial markets. The tokenized asset market currently sits at roughly $38 billion, according to RWA.xyz, and most of that is concentrated in U.S. Treasury bonds and private credit.
