The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy R. K. Singh, on Thursday, stated 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. According to PIB, Singh was addressing Moneycontrol’s Policy Next Summit in New Delhi, on January 18.
“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,” stated the Minister.
With electricity being one of the most important infrastructure, Singh observed that the one major distinguishing feature between a developing and a developed country is that in a developed country, there is no loadshedding. “No country can develop if it does not have sufficient power. The power shortage in India has come down from around 4.5% in 2014 to less than 1% 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,” asserted Singh.
Singh 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. 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 LT lines, 2.5 lakh circuit km. of HT lines, about 7.5 lakh transformers and sundry other equipment,” claimed the Minister.
As a result of all this, rural power availability has been brought up 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,” stated Singh.
The Minister observed that India has also emerged as a country which is at the forefront of energy transition, adding that the rate of renewable capacity addition has been one of the fastest with 187 GW of renewable capacity. Singh also stated that India will up its target by achieving 65 percent of capacity from non-fossil-sources by 2030.
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He pointed out that India is the most competitive in renewable energy since the cost of renewable energy is the cheapest in the world, despite subsidies and protectionist measures being adopted by some countries. “We are adding energy storage capacity too. We have about 35 GW of Pumped Storage Projects 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,” asserted Singh.
The Minister also informed that 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,” stated the Minister.
While India is a leader in manufacturing wind power equipment, Singh also stressed the need to domestically manufacture wind turbines of larger capacity.
The Minister also reminded that the government has made business-friendly rules and regulations through regulations such as General Network Access. “Allotment of connectivity will be done straightaway and once you get connected at one point, you get connected to the whole country. You can generate power anywhere and buy and sell anywhere. Further, you do not need a transmission licence to get connected. We have also introduced Green Energy Open Access Rules, which guarantee that you can buy energy from anyone you want,” noted the Minister.
