Power cuts in India to rise by 2027: Report

Research predicts evening power cuts in India by 2027 due to insufficient renewable energy backup, urging more solar and battery storage.

India’s rising electricity needs will likely be accompanied by increasing evening power cuts by 2027 because of insufficient renewable energy-powered backup, says a research report out of the India Energy and Climate Centre, University of California (Berkley).

This scenario is likely even if all the planned coal plants and thermal power assets were to be fully functional by that year.

India has an installed electric capacity of 446 GW with 211 GW coming in from coal, 195 GW coming in from renewable energy sources and the rest from gas and nuclear energy. However not all of this capacity is available all the time. Therefore, a heatwave that lasts all day and whose impact can linger through the night will elicit high electricity demand even at night from air conditioners.

Unlike in the day, when spikes in demand can be met by solar energy this is not possible at night.

On the May 30, peak power demand touched 250 GW at 3 p.m. in the afternoon and estimates that it hovered around 225 GW at night, this suggest that this cannot be met by India’s most reliable power (or firm power) source, coal, on its own.

The way out, said the researchers associated with the study, would be to have more utility-scale solar plants alongside battery storage, which can store the solar energy made during the day. Moreover solar plants and batteries can be deployed much faster than coal and hydro-power plants assets.

By 2027, 100-120 GW (gigawatt, 1000 MW) of new solar, out of which 50-100 GW located alongside batteries with a capacity of 16-30 GW and able to provide 4-6 hours of supply, can avoid shortages.