Power Sector In India

Power is one of the key infrastructures for growth of Industry and economy. Over the past two years, India’s economy expanded at an average annual rate of 7.3% to 7.6%, placing it among the top five fastest growing nations in the world.

With about 308 GW of installed capacity (as of November 2016), the Indian power system is among the largest in the world, but per capita consumption of electricity is less than one-fourth of the world average. An estimated 5.5 crore households are not connected to the national grid. Even when connected, many face frequent disruptions and get low quality power. India’s power system needs to almost quadruple in size by the year 2040 to catch up and keep pace with electricity demand that—boosted by rising incomes and new connections to the grid—increases at almost 5% per year.

With an average solar insolation of 4-7 kwh/m2 and 300 sunny days in a year, India’s potential for harnessing solar power is immense. Government of India (GoI) wants a growing share of the country’s electricity generation to come from renewable energy.

In its NDCs, India aims to increase the share of installed electric power capacity from non-fossil-fuel-based energy resources to 40 % by 2030. With India setting the ambitious target of 175 GW by the year 2022 for Renewable Power, this sector is now poised for a quantum jump.

As a part of clean climate commitments, India plans to install 40 GW of PV Rooftop Solar Systems by 2022. With a market potential of 124 GW, around 506 MW of Rooftop Solar has been installed up to December 2016.