India to invest in transmission, storage for renewable energy expansion

It is well recognised that harnessing renewable energy (RE) can accelerate India’s energy transition and support power management during peak load hours in both monsoon and non-monsoon months. In this context, the Union government’s recent decision to launch the National Electricity Plan (Transmission) must be welcomed. The plan not only seeks to increase the installed RE capacity but also augment storage systems, including 47 gigawatts (Gw) of storage systems running on battery energy, and 30 Gw of pumped storage plants. Further, transmission systems have been planned for delivering power to hubs manufacturing green hydrogen and green ammonia at coastal locations like Mundra, Kandla, Gopalpur, Paradeep, Tuticorin, Vizag, and Mangalore. For the 10-year period from 2022-23 to 2031-32, over 191,000 circuit kilometres of transmission lines are planned to be added, covering both regions within the country and interconnections with neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Interconnections with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also probable in the future. The push to increase RE capacity aligns with India’s commitment to combat climate change and reduce global warming, aiming to achieve 500 Gw of RE capacity by 2030 and 600 Gw capacity by 2032. An investment of Rs 30 trillion will be needed to meet the ambitious target.
 

During 2017-22, capacity addition achieved from conventional sources stood at 30.6 Gw while that from RE sources, including hydropower, was much larger at 54.7 Gw during the same period. Clearly, India is making progress on its climate agenda. Results from the 20th Electric Power Survey, however, suggest the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of electrical energy requirement from 2021-22 to 2026-27 and from 2026-27 to 2031-32 is expected to be 6.67 per cent and 5.33 per cent, respectively. The CAGR of electrical-energy requirement in the country from 2016-17 to 2020-21 was only 3.78 per cent. Thus, the requirement will be higher in the years to come. India, however, will remain coal-dependent for the foreseeable future. In fact, the country saw the share of coal-fired power generation rise to 75 per cent in 2023-24, from 71 per cent in 2019-20. This comes despite an increased focus on green energy and increasing capacity in this area.
 

This again underscores the need to invest heavily in capacity addition, change the capacity mix in favour of RE, and deploy the next phase of energy-storage systems. The Union Cabinet recently did well to approve viability-gap funding for implementing offshore wind-energy projects. The country is also making rapid strides towards electrifying its transport system. According to the National Electricity Plan document, the installed capacity of RE is expected to reach 336 Gw by 2026-27 and 596 Gw by 2031-32, contributing around 44 per cent in the energy mix. In this regard, India’s aim to achieve a 45 per cent reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and cut emission to net zero by 2070 hinges, to a large extent, on its ability to embrace green electricity. The new transmission plan will aid the transition.