Power Minister R K Singh on Wednesday said he expects power demand in April next year to be higher by 30-40 gigawatts (GW) compared to the same month last year, aided by India’s economic growth and rising household consumption.
Energy consumption in April 2022 stood at 133 billion units (BU), which was 11 per cent higher Y-o-Y, while the national peak demand stood at 207.11 GW, a 13 per cent annual growth.
Power demand is growing at 12 per cent, while the economy is growing at 6.5-7 per cent, based on various estimates. Today on a daily basis India’s power demand is around 25,000 MW more than on the corresponding day last year. That shows India is growing rapidly, Singh said in his address after launching the transmission plan for Integration of over 500 GW RE capacity by 2030.
“I will have a meeting today on the demand in April 2023 and how prepared we are to meet that demand. Right now, I am facing a demand which is 25,000 MW more than the corresponding period last year. In April, I think, we will face a demand that is 30,000-40,000 MW more than what it was last year. We like challenges and we will meet them,” he added.
Transmission plan 2030
The Power Ministry has constituted a high-level committee under Chairperson, Central Electricity Authority, with representatives from the Solar Energy Corporation of India, Central Transmission Utility of India, Power Grid Corporation of India, National Institute of Solar Energy, and National Institute of Wind Energy, to plan the transmission system required for 500 GW of non-fossil fuel based installed capacity by 2030.
The Committee prepared a detailed Plan, which is a major step towards achieving the goal of integrating 500 GW of non-fossil fuel based capacity by 2030, by providing a broad plan for the transmission system required for a 537 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
The planned additional transmission systems required for 500 GW of non-fossil fuel include 8120 circuit km of High Voltage Direct Current Transmission corridors, 25,960 circuit km of 765 kV ac lines, 15,758 circuit km of 400 kV lines and 1052 circuit km of 220 kV cable, at an estimated cost of Rs 2.44 lakh crore.
The transmission plan includes a transmission system required for evacuating 10 GW of off-shore wind located in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, at an estimated cost of Rs 0.28 lakh crore. With the planned transmission system, the inter-regional capacity will increase to about 1.50 lakh MW by 2030 from 1.12 lakh MW at present.
Considering the availability of renewable energy-based generation for a limited period during the day, the Plan also envisages installation of Battery Energy Storage Capacity of the order of 51.5 GW by 2030 to provide round-the-clock power to end-consumers.