Current Affairs » India Becomes Power Surplus Nation

India Becomes Power Surplus Nation

According to the Central Electricity Authority's (CEA), India is predicted to have an energy surplus of 6.4% and a peak surplus of 9.1% from 2021–2022. Read this article to know more.

The third-largest electricity producer in the world is India. As of June 30th 2022, India’s national electric grid had an installed capacity of 403.759 GW. Extensive hydroelectric facilities are included in sustainable power plants, which make up 39.2% of the installed capacity. The gross electricity produced by utilities in India for the fiscal year (FY) 2019–20 was 1,383.5 TWh, and the nation produced 1,598 TWh of energy (utilities and non-utilities together). In FY2019, there was gross power consumption of 1,208 kWh per person. The highest recorded global electric energy consumption (17.89%) in FY2015 was found in agriculture. Despite India’s low electricity rate, its per capita electricity usage is standard compared to most other nations.

2.900 new substations were built, 3,800 substations were refurbished, and 7.5 lakh new transformers were added. By November 2021, we had met our goal of using non-fossil fuels for 40% of our established power ancestors capacity.

Key takeaways

  • India is now a power surplus nation with a total installed energy capacity of roughly 4 lakh MegaWatt.
  • With a focus on sustainable development, India’s power ancestors sector is quickly increasing its share of sustainable energy.
  • The third-largest producer of sustainable energy worldwide is India.
  • Forty per cent of the nation’s installed electricity capacity comes from non-fossil fuels.
  • In 2020,sustainable energy production will increase from 51,226 Gigawatt hours to 1,38,337 Gigawatt hours.
  • Applications based on solar energy have helped many Indians by allowing them to meet their lighting, cooking, and other energy needs in an environmentally acceptable manner.

Demand pattern and demand-generating factors

The utility’s energy availability for the 2019–20 fiscal year was 1,284.44 billion KWh, 6.5 billion kWh (0.5%) less than what was needed. The peak load achieved was 182,533 MW, which was 1,229 MW (0.6%) less than required. The Central Electricity Authority of India predicted that the energy and peak surplus would be 2.7% and 9.1%, respectively, for the 2020–21 fiscal year. Through regional transmission networks, power would be delivered from states with a surplus to the few conditions anticipated to have shortages. Electricity ancestors in India have been less of an issue than power distribution since 2015.

In India, 0.2 million households (or less than 0.07%) do not have access to electricity. According to the International Energy Agency, India will increase its new power ancestors capacity by 600 GW to 1,200 GW before 2050. The 740 GW overall power ancestor capacity of the European Union (EU-27) in 2005 is comparable in size to the newly installed capacity. The technologies and fuels India chooses as it expands its electricity reproduction capacity might significantly impact how the world uses resources and how the environment is affected. The need for electricity for HVAC cooling is expected to increase quickly.

Government of India's initiatives in the field of renewable energy

  • PM KUSUM’s Solar Park Scheme
  • Project for Green Hydrogen Mobility
  • Mission Solar National
  • Bundling Plan
  • Rooftop Solar Grid-Connected Project
  • Canal top and Bank Scheme
  • The Atal Jyoti Yojna (AJAY)

Electricity in both urban and rural areas

In July 2015, the Ministry of Power introduced Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) as one of its major initiatives. planning to supply rural areas with 24 hour power. By separating feeder lines for rural families from those for agricultural purposes and enhancing the transmission and distribution infrastructure, the program concentrated on improvements in the rural electricity industry. The new plan incorporated the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), an earlier program for rural electrification. As of April 28th 2018, 12 days ahead of the target date, all Indian villages (597,464 census villages) were electrified.

India has also almost wholly electrified all of its residences in the cities and the countryside. Nearly all 212.65 million rural homes, or 211.88 million, had access to electricity as of January 4th 2019. Almost all 42.941 million urban homes, or 42.937 million, had access to electricity as of January 4th, 2019.

Producing electricity

Since 1985, India’s electricity production has overgrown, rising from 179 TW-hr in 1985 to 1,057 TW-hr in 2012. Coal-fired power plants and unconventional renewable energy authority (RES) accounted for most of the increase, with natural gas, oil, and hydroelectric facilities contributing less between 2012 and 2017. In 2019–20, gross utility electricity reproduction increased by 1.0% annually from 2018–19 to 1,384 billion kWh (excluding imports from Bhutan). The share of sustainable energy sources was close to 20%. As power production from fossil fuels fell in 2019–20,sustainable energy sources contributed to all additional electricity production.

The utilities sector’s annual power output declined by 0.8% (11.3 billion kWh) from 2020 to 2021, with a 1% decrease in fossil fuel production and a somewhat flat level of non-fossil energy production. India exported more electricity in 2020–21 than it did from its neighbours. After using hydropower and coal reproduction, which surpassed wind, gas, and nuclear power output in 2020–21, solar power reproduction ranked third.