Peak power demand in India may cross 400 Gw by 2030, says R K Singh

Peak power demand in India is likely to cross 400 GW by 2030 and more generation capacity is being set up to meet the rising demand, Union Power Minister R K Singh has said.

Electricity is the most important infrastructure which is a sine qua non for development, the minister said at a summit here on Thursday.

One major distinguishing feature between a developing and a developed country is that in a developed country, there is no load shedding, the minister was quoted as saying in a release by the Power Ministry.

"No country can develop if it does not have sufficient power. The power shortage in India has come down from around 4.5 per cent in 2014 to less than 1 per cent today.

We have ensured universal electricity access, connecting 29 million homes in 19 months, which the International Energy Agency called the largest and fastest expansion of energy access in the history of the power sector, he added.

Speaking about the rising power demand, the minister informed that in 2014, the peak demand was around 130 GW while today it is in the region of 243 GW.

"By 2030, the peak electricity demand is likely to cross 400 GW, indicating the fast growth of the economy. The demand grew at 9 per cent last year, and is growing at 10 per cent this year. On a daily basis, the demand is 8 GW 10 GW more than the same day previous year. There is no other market as big and growing as fast as us," he pointed out.

He said that the nation will add enough capacity to meet this burgeoning demand.

"We will cross 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030. We already have 7 million tonnes of green hydrogen manufacturing lined up," he added.

The minister informed the industry that the total investments made in the power sector in the last nine years are about 17 lakh crores, and the capacity under construction is worth an investment of a further 17.5 lakh crores.

"We have about 99 GW of renewable energy capacity under construction and around 32 GW of renewables under bidding stage. We shall be bidding around 40 to 50 GW of renewable capacity every year," he stated

In thermal capacity, India has about 27 GW under construction.

"We have 47 GW of hydro capacity installed, 18 GW under construction and 13 GW under various stages of survey and investigation," he stated.

The government has transformed the power sector and made it viable.

"The AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses have been brought down from 27 per cent to 15.41 per cent. We want to bring it down further to 10 to 11 per cent," he added.

India has about 35 GW of pumped storage project capacity lined up.

"We are constructing battery storage capacity as well, though it is expensive at present. Unless we have volumes, the price will not come down," he added.

The capacity of module manufacturing has gone up from about 20 GW to about 50 GW now; by 2030, India will have about 24 GW of polysilicon to module manufacturing capacity, he informed.