India’s power demand is projected to grow at a significantly higher rate of 15 gigawatts (GW) per year over the next six years, compared to the 11 GW annual growth seen in the past decade, a senior government official said on Friday.
Speaking at an industry conclave organised by the Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA), Srikant Nagulapalli, Additional Secretary for Power, said that by 2030, the country is expected to add about 85 GW of demand during solar hours, with more than 90 GW added to peak demand during non-solar hours.
“The compound annual growth rate may not fully capture these figures, but in absolute terms, it's a significant jump. To meet this demand, we are undertaking substantial expansion of our coal capacity, along with solar, wind, storage, and transmission capacity,” Nagulapalli said.
Nagulapalli noted that India’s peak power demand grew by an average of 11 GW annually over the last decade, and this figure is expected to rise to 15 GW per year over the next six years. He added that approximately 40 GW of this growth would come from storage solutions. “By 2030, we plan to rely on storage capacity, including long-duration batteries, to meet our non-solar hour peak demands,” he said.
The Ministry of Power has set an ambitious target of 500 GW of capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030. "We have already surpassed 200 GW of renewable energy capacity, and an additional 300 GW must be realised in the next six years, with nearly 225 GW coming from solar and wind energy," Nagulapalli said.
On capacity expansion, he highlighted that the focus would be on renewable energy zones in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, where there is significant solar potential. He also mentioned plans to install offshore wind farms along the coasts of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, as well as large-scale green hydrogen projects in coastal regions of Odisha, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu.
"We expect substantial demand growth from electric vehicles (EVs) and data centres," Nagulapalli added. "The electrification of the economy, combined with these factors, will drive the demand in the coming years."
India’s entire power grid, which operates on a single frequency, is capable of transferring 170 GW of power from one end of the country to the other, connecting even remote regions like Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, he noted.
The government is also promoting storage solutions through pumped hydro storage projects (PSPs) and batteries. “We aim for 40 GW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and 19 GW of PSP capacity in the next six years. The budget also announced a new PSP policy to further encourage these projects,” Nagulapalli said.
Additionally, the government has approved about 4 gigawatt hours (GWh) of BESS through viability gap funding (VGF) and is working on a policy framework to bring battery energy storage systems into the market on a large scale in the short term, he added.
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