India will need an investment of ₹14.5 trillion (~$176.6 billion) by 2027 to install a renewable generation capacity of 210 GW and a battery storage capacity of 8.6 GW/ 34.7 GWh to meet the country’s growing demand for electricity.

Union Minister of Power R.K. Singh informed the Rajya Sabha that the government plans to add 17,500 ckm of transmission lines and 80,000 MVA of transmission capacity across India as part of the planned national grid expansion.

Singh added that the present inter-regional capacity of the country’s grid is 112,250 MW and would reach 150,000 MW by 2030.

Further, he said that as of February 2023, India’s total installed non-fossil fuel-based capacity is around 176 GW out of the total capacity of 412 GW.

The country’s total utility-scale installed solar capacity is around 64.4 GW, while the cumulative wind capacity is about 42 GW.

The Central Electricity Authority published the draft National Electricity Plan last September, which estimated that India must add 412.8 GW of renewable energy generation capacity by 2032 to meet the peak demand and energy requirement for the financial year 2031-32.

CEA also reported last year that India would likely have an energy surplus of 2.9% and a peak surplus of 3.4% for 2022-23.

The minister highlighted that thermal power plants of 25.4 GW capacity are under various stages of construction in the country. Hydroelectric projects above 25 MW with a cumulative capacity of 17.8 GW are under implementation.

The capacity of under-construction nuclear power plants is 8.7 GW, while the government has approved an additional 7 GW of nuclear capacity, Singh said.

The Ministry of Power recently devised a strategy to ensure power availability during the summer. It has instructed NTPC to operate its 5 GW gas-based power stations during April and May. Other entities will add 4 GW of gas-based power capacity during the summer.

The all-India peak power demand reached an all-time high of 201.1 GW on April 26, 2022, surpassing the peak power demand of 200.5 GW met on July 7, 2021.