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Daily Update — May 4, 2026

India’s Renewables Market; AI’s Energy Problem; and the Rise of the Wealth Channel

Today is Monday, May 4, 2026, and here’s your curated selection of Essential Intelligence on global markets from S&P Global. Subscribe to be notified of each new Daily Update.

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Energy Transition & Sustainability

India’s power and renewables market: Demand stalls, capacity rises

 

India's power sector reached a turning point in fiscal year 2025–26 (April 2025–March 2026), as record renewable capacity additions of 51 GW coincided with the first annual drop in electricity demand since the pandemic. The unusual combination stemmed from prolonged monsoon conditions that suppressed cooling demand and accelerated clean energy deployment, according to Central Electricity Authority data and S&P Global Energy CERA analysis.

 

Electricity demand in 2025–26 fell 0.3% year over year to about 1,690 terawatt-hours, according to Central Electricity Authority data. Looking ahead, S&P Global Energy CERA expects electricity demand to rebound 4.7%-5.4% between April and December. However, this outlook remains below earlier projections of 6.0%-6.6% for calendar year 2026, as GDP growth slows due to ongoing geopolitical disruptions stemming from the war in the Middle East, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence

AI won’t solve its own energy problem – and that might be fine

 

Power is becoming the binding constraint on AI infrastructure growth. Dominion Energy — the utility at the center of Northern Virginia’s so-called Data Center Alley — now has 70 GW of pending connection requests, a figure that has tripled since early 2025 and continues to grow at 2-3 GW per month. Interconnection timelines in the most active markets have now stretched beyond six years. But the defining issue is not AI’s energy consumption; it is whether AI changes the overall energy equation.

 

The math is ultimately straightforward: AI's net energy impact equals what it consumes minus what it helps save across the broader economy. What is not straightforward is whether those savings will materialize fast enough and in the right geographies to keep pace with demand. That gap, not gross consumption, is the defining challenge of the next decade.

Private Markets

Listen: Discipline, Deployment and the Rise of the Wealth Channel across Private Markets

 

In this episode of the “Private Markets 360°” podcast, Jeff Diehl, managing partner and head of investments at Adams Street Partners, joined hosts Chris Sparenberg and Jocelyn Lewis to discuss today’s market trends, macroeconomic impacts and the rise of retail access to private investments. Diehl discussed the dynamics of hyperscalers in private credit, the discipline required in underwriting, the evolving expectations of limited partners and the rapid rise of the wealth channel.

In case you missed it

  • India will keep retail prices of gasoline and diesel unchanged for now, despite the sharp rise in global crude oil prices, as ship traffic via the Strait of Hormuz remained constrained amid stalled peace talks between Iran and the US.
  • The European Commission has closed the first round of its Hydrogen Mechanism, with a large majority of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen suppliers receiving interest from potential buyers.
  • US electric and gas utilities are preparing for a sharp acceleration in capital spending in 2026, as surging electricity demand, led by data centers and steady growth across residential, commercial and industrial users, forces a rethink of grid capacity and resilience.

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