India's Central Electricity Authority releases draft National Power Plan
Sep 23, 2022
According to the draft National Power Plan released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India will need 224.9GW of additional renewable energy capacity by 2032 to meet the country's peak electricity and energy demand by fiscal year 2031-2032. Stakeholders have until December 5, 2022 to submit comments and suggestions on this draft.
India's cumulative installed capacity of renewable energy generation facilities (including large hydropower) to date is 159.81 GW. India's electricity demand is estimated to be 272 GW in FY 2026-2027 and 363 GW in FY 2031-2032.
Installed capacity
To meet India's peak power demand and energy requirements in FY 2026-2027, 228.54GW of new installed capacity of various energy facilities will be required from 2022 to 2027, including 40.63GW of conventional energy and 187.9GW of renewable energy, which includes large scale hydropower (10.95GW), photovoltaic power (132.08 GW)), wind power (40.5GW), biomass (2.31GW) and pumped storage projects (2.7GW). This forecast does not include 5.85GW of imported hydropower.
The draft states that India's cumulative installed renewable energy capacity is expected to reach 344.51GW by 2026-2027 and 569.42GW by 2031-2032.
Electricity generation
Based on forecasts of renewable energy generation from 2026 to 2027, and taking into account an increase in installed renewable energy capacity of 224.9 GW between 2027 and 2032, India's electricity generation from various renewable energy sources is estimated to be 667.2 BU by FY 2026 to 2027 and 1144.4 BU by FY 2031 to 2032. by FY 2026 to 2027 Renewable energy generation will account for about 35.6% of India's total electricity generation by FY 2026-2027 and 45.09% by FY 2031-2032.
Installed capacity of energy storage systems
According to the Central Electricity Authority's (CEA) generation planning study, by FY 2026 to 2027, India will have built pumped storage projects with an installed capacity of 6.81GW and 46.65GWh of energy storage capacity to meet the grid's energy storage needs. The total installed capacity of energy storage systems installed in India is expected to increase to 70.38GW (18.82GW for pumped storage facilities and 51.56GW for battery storage systems) and a total storage capacity of 392.78GWh (135GWh for pumped storage facilities and 257.78GWh for battery storage systems) by FY2031 to FY2032.
As of March 2022, India has eight pumped storage projects in operation with a total installed capacity of 4.74 GW. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India has identified the potential for installing pumped storage projects in different regions of the country at 96.52 GW. Due to its topography, western India has the highest potential for installing pumped storage projects at 37.84 GW.
The Central Electricity Authority of India (CEA) has stated in the draft National Power Plan that lithium-ion battery storage systems are now the dominant energy storage technology. Due to technological innovation and improved manufacturing capabilities, the price of lithium-ion batteries has fallen dramatically since their introduction. The cost of battery energy storage systems will fall.
Hydrogen can provide an additional utility-scale energy storage option and offers a unique opportunity to integrate the transport and power sectors. Although hydrogen is currently a high cost energy storage option, it has some advantages over competing technologies due to its high storage energy density and potential for co-combustion with natural gas in gas turbines.
Funding required
In order to meet the target of installing 40.63GW of conventional energy and 187.9GW of renewable energy capacity, India's total capital requirements for the period 2022 to 2027 are estimated at Rs 14.31 trillion (approximately US$179.45 billion). And in the period 2027 to 2032, Rs 17.16 trillion (about US$215.19 billion) will be needed to achieve the target of adding 18.13GW of conventional energy and 224.9GW of renewable energy and 51.5GW/257.5GWh of battery energy storage systems.
According to the load generation balance report released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India is likely to have a power surplus of 2.9% and a peak power surplus of 3.4% in FY2022-2023.
On 26 April 2022, India's peak electricity demand reached a record high of 201.066 GW, surpassing the peak electricity demand of 200.539 GW reached on 7 July 2021.
