Peak power demand to touch 366 GW by 2032: Central Electricity Secretary

Peak power demand in India will increase to 366 GW by 2032 and 693 GW by 2047, a top official said.

This assumes significance in view of rising electricity consumption in the country as peak power demand touched a record high of 243.27 GW in September 2023.

At the virtual launch of the US-India Energy Storage Task Force, Rakesh Kumar, Secretary of Central Electricity Authority, said, "Considering the projected electricity demand and energy requirement in the country, which is expected to grow in terms of peak demand to 277 GW by 2027; to 366 GW by 2032 and 693 GW by 2047."

"Our country has a vision to reduce carbon emission intensity by 45 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels. And net zero by 2070," Kumar, India Co-Chair of the US-India Energy Storage Task Force, said in a statement.

The US-India Energy Storage Task Force was launched virtually at a conference in India to make strides in global transformation in this area.

The public-private US-India Energy Storage Task Force (ESTF) was established by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Indian Ministry of Power (MOP).

The India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) has been appointed as the secretariat.

In terms of energy requirement, India is expected to see growth from 1,512 billion units to 1,927 billion units by 2027; 2,473 billion units by 2032 and 4,600 billion units by 2047, Kumar said.

Thereby, logging an expected growth of about 8 per cent annual basis, he pointed out.

Further, he said, "We have already tested a peak demand of 240 Gigawatt this year which was more than 8 per cent annual growth compared to the last year."

IESA President Rahul Walawalkar said, "There was a decision made to set up this joint task force focusing on energy storage given the critical role of energy storage for the growth of both, renewable energy transition as well as, e-mobility and other areas which are important for clean energy transition."

Walawalkar is also the managing director of Customized Energy Solutions India.

"The ESTF will report to the power and energy efficiency pillar under the US-India CSCP program.

"We are considering the vision and objective of the task force to facilitate ongoing and meaningful dialogue among the US and Indian government officials, industry representatives and other stakeholders to scale up and accelerate the deployment of energy storage technologies," Debi Prasad Dash, Executive Director at IESA and Secretary of US-India Energy Storage Task Force (ESTF), said.

Founded by Customized Energy Solutions (CES) in 2012, IESA is an industry alliance focused on the development of advanced energy storage, green hydrogen, and e-mobility technologies in India.