Pumped hydro capacity to cross 10 GW yearly from FY29, says CEA chief

CEA chairperson Ghanshayam Prasad said India will add 2.8 GW pumped hydro annually till 2027 and over 10 GW a year from 2028-29 to reach 57 GW capacity by 2032

India will add pumped hydro storage capacity of 2.8 gigawatt (GW) annually in the next two years, said Ghanshayam Prasad, chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), on Monday.

 

Amid a push to increase the share of renewables in the total energy mix, India will further scale up capacity addition for pumped hydro storage to over 10 GW every year from 2028–29, Prasad said at a conference on energy storage organised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

 

“From this year onwards, we have started adding around 2.8 GW every year. From 2028–29, you will find this going into double digits as well, roughly 10–13 GW (of pumped hydro storage capacity) getting added each year,” Prasad said.

 

India aims to increase pumped storage capacity to around 57 GW by 2032, from current levels of about 5 GW, to address the issue of intermittency associated with renewable energy sources.

 

“With increasing share of renewables, storage systems are gaining more importance. So far, we have been able to manage the grid with variability of thermal. When we have to meet demand during non-solar hours, that becomes a big challenge. We have no option but to go for energy storage systems,” Prasad said.

 

To boost energy storage capacity, the government announced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) in 2021 under the National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage Production, with a financial outlay of Rs 18,100 crore for development of 50 GWh ACC capacity.

 

India’s installed non-fossil fuel-based power generation capacity has reached 252 GW, and the government is committed to increasing it to 500 GW by 2030.