India Has Around 32 GW of RE Projects Under Bidding Stage: RK Singh

We have Around 32 GW of Renewables Under Bidding Stage: RK Singh

Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy RK Singh said in a press conference that no country could excel without sufficient power. “The power shortage in India has come down from around 4.5% in 2014 to less than 1% today,” he said. 

He added, “Electricity is the most important infrastructure, which is a sine qua non for development, observing that the one major distinguishing feature between a developing and a developed country is that in a developed country, there is no loadshedding.”

He added, “We have ensured universal electricity access, connecting 29 million homes in 19 months, which the International Energy Agency (IEA) called as the largest and fastest expansion of energy access in the history of the power sector.” the minister said this, while addressing a policy summit in New Delhi.

The minister laid down the details of the power capacity addition and strengthening of the electricity distribution system. “We added about 194 GW of power capacity, out of which around 107 GW is renewables. We constructed 193,0000 circuit km of transmission lines, which connected the whole country into one grid on one frequency, making it the largest integrated grid in the world.”

Compared to the data shared by the minister in the parliament last year, data indicates an increase in the area covered by the transmission line. It has increased from 1,87,849 circuit kilometers (ckm) of transmission lines, 6,82,767 MVA of transformation capacity, and 80,590 MW of inter-regional capacity had been added.

He elaborated, “We increased the power transfer capacity from 36 GW to 117 GW today. We added 3,000 substations, upgraded 4000 substations, added about 5.5 lakh circuit km. of Low Tech (LT) lines, 2.5 lakh circuit km. of High Tech (HT) lines, about 7.5 lakh transformers and sundry other equipment.”

The minister said, “As a result of all this, we were able to bring up rural power availability from 12.5 hours in 2015 to around 21 hours today and in urban areas to 23.8 hours. “Days of generators are gone. We have Rules which say that 24*7 power is now a right, no discom can do gratuitous loadshedding; if they do that, they will have to pay penalties and consumers will get compensation.”

The minister observed that India has also emerged as a country which is at the forefront of energy transition. “Our rate of renewable capacity addition has been one of the fastest. We have 187 GW of renewable capacity. We had pledged that we will have 40% of our capacity from non-fossil-fuels by 2030, and today, we have 44% of our capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources. We have now upped our target and while we have pledged to have 50% of our capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030, we shall have 65% of our capacity from non-fossil-sources by 2030.”

The minister informed the industry that the total investments made in the power sector in the last nine years is about 17 lakh crores, and the capacity under construction is worth 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 – 50 GW of renewable capacity every year. In thermal capacity, we have about 27 GW under construction, we have bid out additional 12 GW, 21 GW more under survey and investigation and a further 22 GW under initial stages. We have 47 GW of hydro capacity installed, 18 GW under construction and 13 GW under various stages of survey and investigation.”

The minister said, “The government is coming out with a Production Linked Incentive Scheme for grid-scale storage which will further bring down the price of storage. “Due to interventions such as custom duties on solar modules and cells as well as Approved List of Models and Manufacturers, the net result has been that the capacity of module manufacturing has gone up from about 20 GW to about 50 GW now; by 2030, we will have about 24 GW of polysilicon to module manufacturing capacity.”