India’s energy system struggling to accommodate rising renewable power capability: IEEFA report

Regardless of including renewable power (RE) capability at a quick tempo, India’s electrical energy technology from such sources has remained pretty low, in keeping with a report by the Institute of Power Economics and Monetary Evaluation (IEEFA) launched on July 13.

The report – Integrating Greater Share of Variable Renewable Power in India – acknowledged that between 2016 and 2022, renewable power
share in India’s whole electrical energy technology grew solely by 6.5 proportion factors, whereas its share within the whole capability addition grew by 13.6 proportion factors.

Charith Konda, the writer of the report and IEEFA’s Power Finance Analyst, stated the hole between the prevailing RE capability and its precise utilization in assembly the nation’s energy demand is because of the lack of ability of the Indian energy system to accommodate larger shares of renewable power.

Additionally learn: India’s energy consumption grows by 4.4% to 139.23 billion items in June

India’s energy market construction, the place distribution firms procure near 90 % of the facility generated by long-term energy buy agreements, limits grid flexibility in absorbing larger shares of variable renewable power. Nearly all of energy generated by India’s massive (greater than 210 GW) present coal energy fleet has mounted long-term contracts with distribution firms, which is why discoms invariably go for thermal energy, Konda defined.

Additionally, coal-fired energy crops can’t be ramped down simply and therefore, are much less versatile, which implies they need to function at larger plant load issue to take care of the well being of the plant gear. Consequently, the grid is usually occupied by coal-fired electrical energy.

One more reason is the seasonality of wind energy technology and focus of wind energy technology property in six states, which results in grid congestion in excessive wind energy technology seasons. It leads to the curtailment of wind energy. Additionally, the variable nature of photo voltaic and wind energy makes them non-dispatchable energy sources and
therefore not superb for offering on-demand electrical energy until supported by sufficient power
storage capability, which at the moment is dear and exists in a really small scale.

The report recommends 4 methods for India to deal with this huge hole between RE capability and precise RE technology – 1. introducing demand-side measures like time-of-use (also referred to as time-of-day) tariffs; 2. creating a well-connected nationwide grid; 3. deploying numerous power storage choices for grid balancing companies; 4. changing its fossil-fuel powered fleet to function in a versatile method.

Additionally learn: The dismal state of energy discoms threatens India’s power goals

“Demand-side measures and expanded transmission community will assist in lowering grid balancing wants and also will assist in integrating renewable power. Power storage applied sciences can present quite a lot of grid balancing companies,” the report acknowledged.

ToU or ToD  (time-of-day) tariff helps handle peak hundreds. Normally, beneath ToD, energy tariffs are larger throughout peak energy consumption hours, and decrease throughout off-peak hours. This acts as an oblique incentive for customers to shift their electrical energy consumption extra towards off-peak hours.

India’s electrical energy technology grew from 1,376 billion items within the monetary yr (FY) 2018-19 to 1,624 billion items in FY2022-23 at a compounded annual development charge (CAGR) of 4.4 %. The common annual energy deficit (the hole between energy technology and demand) was 0.5 %, with the common peak deficit at 1.4 % throughout the interval. However in FY 2022-23, India’s peak energy deficit reached a excessive of 4 % because the nation struggled to fulfill the demand throughout the summer season.

Wanting forward, the Central Electrical energy Authority (CEA) expects the nation’s electrical energy demand to
develop at an annual charge of about 6 % within the subsequent decade (2022-2032).

“For India to fulfill rising electrical energy demand whereas addressing local weather issues, elevated integration of fresh power, together with variable renewable power is important,” Konda stated.

“Whereas elevating non-fossil gasoline energy’s put in capability share to 50 % by 2030 could also be comparatively simpler to attain, lowering the emissions depth of its economic system by 45 % by 2030 from 2005 ranges requires elevated integration of variable renewable power within the energy system,” he stated.