{"id":72569,"date":"2026-04-30T18:19:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=72569"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:20:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T12:50:32","slug":"india-energy-transition-gaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/30-04-2026\/india-energy-transition-gaps","title":{"rendered":"Structural Gaps in India\u2019s Energy Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Energy and Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India\u2019s power grid has recently faced power shortages at night due to record electricity demand caused by early and intense heatwave conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Power Supply Disruptions in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mismatch Between Demand and Supply:<\/strong> India recorded a peak electricity demand of around <strong>256 GW<\/strong>, with a shortfall exceeding <strong>4 GW <\/strong>during late-night hours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Forced and Partial Outages: <\/strong>Forced outages, caused by equipment failure, technical faults, or operational stress, increased sharply to around <strong>21\u201326 GW.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>planned maintenance outages<\/strong> remained limited to about <strong>3 GW.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Market Scenario: <\/strong>Spot electricity prices in the Day Ahead Market surged to the regulatory cap of <strong>\u20b910 per unit<\/strong> during night hours.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prices dropped sharply to around <strong>\u20b91.5 per unit<\/strong> during the daytime, indicating surplus solar power availability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why Is the Power Grid Under Stress at Night?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Sharp Decline in Solar Generation After Sunset:<\/strong> India has developed nearly 150 GW of solar capacity, which significantly supports daytime electricity demand.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Solar generation falls<\/strong> to negligible levels <strong>after sunset,<\/strong> creating a sudden supply gap during evening and night hours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This phenomenon leads to a steep transition in the supply curve, often referred to as the <strong>\u201csolar cliff\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sustained High Demand During Night Hours: <\/strong>Electricity demand remains elevated during night hours due to continued use of cooling appliances.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The persistence of heat during nighttime further prevents any meaningful decline in electricity demand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dependence on Thermal Power:<\/strong> During non-solar hours the grid relies heavily on coal-based thermal power, and is expected to compensate for the absence of solar energy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Limited Flexibility of Other Sources:<\/strong> Hydropower and gas-based plants provide flexibility but are constrained by water availability and high fuel costs.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Wind energy remains intermittent<\/strong> and cannot be relied upon for consistent night-time supply.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Structural Gaps in India\u2019s Power Sector<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India\u2019s energy transition is creating a <strong>mismatch between variable renewable supply <\/strong>and<strong> inflexible conventional backup.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The grid<strong> lacks adequate energy storage systems<\/strong> to store excess daytime solar power for night-time use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thermal power plants face <strong>operational stress <\/strong>due to <strong>ageing infrastructure<\/strong> and climate-induced challenges.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Demand-side management remains limited,<\/strong> especially in regulating peak residential consumption.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Government Initiatives to Improve Clean Energy Utilisation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Renewable Energy Hybrid Policy:<\/strong> Encourages setting up of projects that combine solar and wind energy in the same location to increase capacity utilisation and reliability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Green Energy Corridor (GEC): <\/strong>Aims to strengthen the transmission infrastructure to evacuate renewable energy efficiently from generation points to demand centres.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) Scheme: <\/strong>Implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, the scheme promotes energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries, thereby reducing overall electricity demand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India must <strong>accelerate the deployment of battery energy storage systems <\/strong>and pumped hydro storage to store surplus daytime solar power and ensure reliable supply during night hours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There is a need to <strong>modernise and upgrade ageing thermal power plants <\/strong>to improve efficiency, reduce forced outages, and enhance operational flexibility.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Greater investment in grid flexibility, including <strong>flexible generation, ancillary services, and real-time balancing mechanisms<\/strong>, is essential to manage variability in renewable energy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Strengthening forecasting capabilities and digital grid management systems <\/strong>will help anticipate demand-supply gaps and improve system reliability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-health\/what-is-brain-death-and-why-is-supreme-court-reviewing-the-way-its-certified-10662996\/?re\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> India\u2019s power grid has recently faced power shortages at night due to record electricity demand caused by early and intense heatwave conditions. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> Recent Power Supply Disruptions in India <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> 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. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Forced and Partial Outages: Forced outages, caused by equipment failure, technical faults, or operational stress, increased sharply to around 21\u201326 GW.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/30-04-2026\/india-energy-transition-gaps \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72571,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72569\/revisions\/72571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}