Brief Context
Context India’s power grid has recently faced power shortages at night due to record electricity demand caused by early and intense heatwave conditions. Recent Power Supply Disruptions in India Mismatch Between Demand and Supply: India recorded a peak electricity demand of around 256 GW, with a shortfall exceeding 4 GW during late-night hours. Forced and Partial Outages: Forced outages, caused by equipment failure, technical faults, or operational stress, increased sharply to around 21–26 GW.
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Syllabus: GS3/ Energy and Infrastructure
Context
- India’s power grid has recently faced power shortages at night due to record electricity demand caused by early and intense heatwave conditions.
Recent Power Supply Disruptions in India
- Mismatch Between Demand and Supply: India recorded a peak electricity demand of around 256 GW, with a shortfall exceeding 4 GW during late-night hours.
- Forced and Partial Outages: Forced outages, caused by equipment failure, technical faults, or operational stress, increased sharply to around 21–26 GW.
- The planned maintenance outages remained limited to about 3 GW.
- Market Scenario: Spot electricity prices in the Day Ahead Market surged to the regulatory cap of ₹10 per unit during night hours.
- Prices dropped sharply to around ₹1.5 per unit during the daytime, indicating surplus solar power availability.
Why Is the Power Grid Under Stress at Night?
- Sharp Decline in Solar Generation After Sunset: India has developed nearly 150 GW of solar capacity, which significantly supports daytime electricity demand.
- Solar generation falls to negligible levels after sunset, creating a sudden supply gap during evening and night hours.
- This phenomenon leads to a steep transition in the supply curve, often referred to as the “solar cliff”.
- Sustained High Demand During Night Hours: Electricity demand remains elevated during night hours due to continued use of cooling appliances.
- The persistence of heat during nighttime further prevents any meaningful decline in electricity demand.
- Dependence on Thermal Power: During non-solar hours the grid relies heavily on coal-based thermal power, and is expected to compensate for the absence of solar energy.
- Limited Flexibility of Other Sources: Hydropower and gas-based plants provide flexibility but are constrained by water availability and high fuel costs.
- Wind energy remains intermittent and cannot be relied upon for consistent night-time supply.
Structural Gaps in India’s Power Sector
- India’s energy transition is creating a mismatch between variable renewable supply and inflexible conventional backup.
- The grid lacks adequate energy storage systems to store excess daytime solar power for night-time use.
- Thermal power plants face operational stress due to ageing infrastructure and climate-induced challenges.
- Demand-side management remains limited, especially in regulating peak residential consumption.
Government Initiatives to Improve Clean Energy Utilisation
- Renewable Energy Hybrid Policy: Encourages setting up of projects that combine solar and wind energy in the same location to increase capacity utilisation and reliability.
- Green Energy Corridor (GEC): Aims to strengthen the transmission infrastructure to evacuate renewable energy efficiently from generation points to demand centres.
- Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) Scheme: Implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the scheme promotes energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries, thereby reducing overall electricity demand.
Way Ahead
- India must accelerate the deployment of battery energy storage systems and pumped hydro storage to store surplus daytime solar power and ensure reliable supply during night hours.
- There is a need to modernise and upgrade ageing thermal power plants to improve efficiency, reduce forced outages, and enhance operational flexibility.
- Greater investment in grid flexibility, including flexible generation, ancillary services, and real-time balancing mechanisms, is essential to manage variability in renewable energy.
- Strengthening forecasting capabilities and digital grid management systems will help anticipate demand-supply gaps and improve system reliability.
Source: IE