Renewables at close to 30% generation share: powering India’s next phase of the energy transition

Renewables now account for close to 30% of India’s generation share — an outcome that would have been treated as optimistic a decade ago. It is worth stating plainly that this represents genuine achievement, delivered by falling technology costs, sustained policy support and an execution capability that Indian developers built from a standing start.

It is equally worth stating that the capacity expansion achieved so far represents the easier part of the renewable transition. The first tranche of renewable penetration is absorbed by an existing system with spare flexibility. Each subsequent tranche consumes more of that flexibility than the one before.

The three constraints that bind next

Transmission comes first. Resource-rich states are not always demand-heavy states, and evacuation capacity determines whether generation reaches load.

Flexibility comes second. As variable generation grows, the system needs resources that can ramp: storage, demand response, and thermal plants operated flexibly rather than as base load — a mode of operation that changes their economics and their maintenance profile.

Firm supply comes third. Commercial and industrial customers increasingly want round-the-clock clean power, not energy delivered whenever the resource is available. Meeting that requires combining technologies rather than deploying them separately.

Integrated portfolios

This is the reasoning behind an integrated portfolio spanning transitional and renewable generation with storage alongside. The objective is not technology neutrality for its own sake, but the ability to deliver electricity that matches what a customer actually needs at the hour they need it.

Originally published in Vocal Media. Read the full piece at the source.

More on this theme in Ratul Puri on India's energy transition, or read about his role as Chairman of Hindustan Power.