Regulatory & Policy

With India’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2070, one of the milestones is attaining 500 GW capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030. India has made significant progress in this regard, with installed renewable energy (RE) capacity reaching 120,900 MW as of 30 December 2022 (solar power: 63,302 MW; wind power: 41,930 MW). However, more than 300 GW needs to be added to achieve the target by 2030.

The country has already made significant progress with installed renewable energy (RE) capacity reaching 114 GW as of 30 June 2022. This includes 41 GW of wind energy and 58 GW of solar energy. However, to get to 500 GW, India still has a long way to go. It needs to install more than 300 GW of RE capacity in the next 8 years. For this, a concerted effort from power sub-sectors (generation, transmission, and distribution) and a detailed analysis of the opportunities and challenges of each of them is required.
In this article, we touch upon transmission and distribution.

In line with last year’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2070, India, at its pavilion at the 27th session of the Conference of Parties or COP27 is talking about a climate-friendly, sustainable lifestyle. As renewable energy (RE) plays a huge role in cutting down GHG emissions, the country has already pledged to have 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel-based capacity by 2030.

National economic activities were hit hard by the pandemic, and the power sector was no exception. The sector deviated from the expected energy supply and peak power demand growth trajectory during the pandemic years, and is now on the path of recovery.

This paper presents our analysis of the impact of integrating electric vehicles (EVs) and rooftop photovoltaic (RTPV) on the power system distribution feeders at the 11 kV level. For the assessment, we selected a sample urban feeder that served both domestic and commercial consumers within Bengaluru city limits. The EV-demand projection was considered on the basis of a report by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, while the RTPV potential was estimated using CSTEP’s Rooftop Evaluation for Solar Tool (CREST).

According to a Karnataka Government site, data from the last three years (FY 18-19 to FY 20-21) show that 58 departmental and 1,077 non-departmental fatal accidents took place at five state electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) during this period.

The DISCOMs are usually responsible for the laying of distribution infrastructure that supplies electricity to the end consumers (residential, industrial, commercial, agriculture, and others). Though several public safety measures are in place, electrical accidents do occur, causing injury and/or loss of life and property.  

In 2016, we at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) were studying the electrification status of various villages in Karnataka. The exercise gave us interesting insights into the scope of employing technologies like solar photovoltaic (PV) mini-grids to electrify such areas, where grid extension is not feasible. This motivated us to further investigate the last-mile electricity solutions. For getting deeper into the energy access issue, we decided to implement a mini-grid pilot project and better understand the ground realities.

The Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) implemented the mini-grid pilot project during 2018–19 in Kudagaon, an un-electrified remote island on the Mahanadi River, in the Angul district of Odisha, where three generations of indigenous people live.