The Minister of State for Power, Shripad Naik, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha shared the power demand overview of India. The minister informed that to increase production capacity, the following steps were taken between 2013-14 and 2024-25:
- A total of 195,181 ckm of transmission lines, 730,794 MVA of transformation capacity, and 82,790 MW of inter-regional capacity were added.
- A transmission plan for integrating 500,000 MW of renewable energy capacity is being implemented in phases, in line with the addition of renewable capacity.
- The government constructed Green Energy Corridors and established 13 Renewable Energy Management Centres.
- Efforts were made to ensure the viability of the power sector. AT&C losses decreased from 22.62 per cent in 2013-14 to 15.40 per cent in 2022-23. All current payments to generation companies (gencos) were up-to-date, and the legacy dues of gencos reduced from Rs 1,399.47 billion to Rs 351.19 billion.
- A waiver of ISTS charges on the transmission of electricity generated from solar, wind, pumped storage plants, and battery energy storage systems was implemented.
- The trajectory for renewable purchase obligations (RPOs) and energy storage obligations was outlined up to 2029-30.
- In 2019, the government announced measures to promote the hydro power sector, including declaring large hydro projects (>25 MW) as renewable energy sources, implementing tariff rationalisation measures to reduce hydropower tariffs, and providing budgetary support for flood moderation/storage hydroelectric projects (HEPs) and enabling infrastructure like roads and bridges.
- The introduction of the Real Time Market (RTM), Green Day Ahead Market (GDAM), Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM), and High Price Day Ahead Market (HP-DAM) in power exchanges took place. Additionally, the DEEP Portal (Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price) was launched for e-bidding and e-reverse auctions for short-term power procurement by discoms.
- Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Parks were established to provide land and transmission facilities to renewable energy developers for large-scale project installations.
