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हिन्दी — Read in HindiGrid, power sector and energy policy
The power sector: the grid and its transmission corridors, the regulators and distribution companies, market reforms, and what solar and wind change about running the grid. It serves GS3 answers on energy infrastructure.
Foundation note: The grid: how power reaches a plug, who regulates it, and what renewables change
All 6 articles shown; the 2 that changed from 1 to 31 August 2026 are marked.Show only these
Renewable projects near the international border
Copy link to Renewable projects near the international borderPrelims and Mains
Solar, wind and hybrid renewable energy projects near India's frontiers are restricted by their distance from the international border, the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Control.
- A project 1 km to 20 km out needs a No Objection Certificate from the Defence Ministry.
- Any project within 50 km needs Home Ministry security clearance.
- Staff from Pakistan, Bangladesh or China, and any land transfer to a foreign firm, need approval.
What changed
8 Aug 2026BriefThe Home Ministry barred solar, wind and hybrid projects within 1 km of the international border, the Line of Control or the Line of Actual Control. The Hindu, 8 Aug 2026: No solar, wind renewable energy project within 1 km of international border, says Home Ministry (opens in a new tab)
India's renewable capacity
Copy link to India's renewable capacityPrelims and Mains
India's non fossil build has run ahead of its own timetable, so the question has stopped being how much can be generated and become whether the wires can move it and the batteries hold it. Installed capacity is counted in gigawatts of plant; generation, in units of electricity, is what solar and wind actually deliver, and their share of generation is far below their share of capacity because they run only when the weather allows. The target is 500 GW of non fossil capacity by 2030.
Curtailment
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LeadThe grid is the limit: 300 GW and curtailmentAugust 2026
Why in news
India's non fossil capacity crossed 300 GW on 31 July 2026, and renewables supplied a record 20 per cent of generation in July. In the same weeks solar plants were being told to switch off output, because the grid could not carry it.
- 300.50 GWnon fossil capacity, over 54 per cent of installed capacity
- 500 GWthe target for non fossil capacity by 2030
- 20 per centrenewables' share of generation in July 2026, a record
- 30 to 50 per centoutput lost by projects on temporary grid access
Background
- Installed capacity is what plants could produce at full output, measured in gigawatts; generation is the electricity they actually deliver.
- Solar and wind run only when the weather allows, so their share of generation is far below their share of capacity.
- Solar output peaks at midday, while Indian demand peaks after sunset.
- India reached 50 per cent non fossil capacity five years ahead of its 2030 target.
What curtailment is
- Curtailment is the deliberate cutting of a plant's output below what it could generate, because the grid cannot absorb or carry the power.
- The generator is usually not compensated for the power it was ready to supply.
- Projects connected on temporary network access lose the most, 30 to 50 per cent of their output.
- New auctions have slowed, and 40 to 45 GW of awarded capacity has no signed power purchase agreement.
Why a solar heavy grid is harder to run
- A coal or hydro turbine is a heavy spinning mass, and that inertia steadies the grid's frequency by itself.
- Solar and wind are inverter based resources: they reach the grid through power electronics and give no such inertia.
- The result is lower grid strength, with voltage and frequency less stable.
- The answers are grid forming inverters and synchronous condensers.
The remedies
- Transmission: lines built ahead of the plants, as under the Green Energy Corridor.
- Storage: batteries and pumped storage carry midday power into the evening.
- Demand: time of day tariffs, daytime charging of electric vehicles and industrial use moved into solar hours.
- Payment: treating curtailment as a grid service that is compensated.
The way forward
- Plan transmission and generation together, so that no plant is finished before its line.
- Require storage with new solar, as the floating solar scheme already does.
- Use the existing grid better, since new lines alone cannot keep pace with new capacity.
Prelims facts
- Non fossil capacity includes solar, wind, hydro, bio power and nuclear.
- India's target is 500 GW of non fossil capacity by 2030.
- Solar is the largest part of non fossil capacity.
- Inertia comes from rotating turbines, not from solar panels.
Solar and wind generate when the weather allows rather than when demand asks, and Indian demand peaks after sunset while the panels work at midday. Where neither the wires nor the load can take the power, the cheapest answer is to switch some of it off: curtailment, deliberately cutting a plant's output below what it could generate, with the loss falling on the generator. The remedies are to move demand into solar hours through industrial electrification, workplace charging and time of day tariffs, to store the surplus in batteries and pumped storage, and to treat curtailment as a paid grid service rather than an uncompensated loss.
- Mains: India needs both new transmission lines and smarter use of the existing grid, since new lines alone cannot keep pace with renewable additions.
Four grid routes
| Route | What it does | Capacity it could enable |
|---|---|---|
| Batteries at renewable plants | Stores output so connections used about 25 per cent of the time carry power two to three times as much | About 400 GW |
| Renewables at underused coal plant connections | Uses spare capacity on connections coal plants already hold | About 100 GW |
| New connections at existing substations, with batteries | Adds connections at substations already built | About 100 GW |
| Reconductoring | Replaces sagging conductors with high temperature, low sag ones on the same towers | Nearly doubles line capacity |
What changed
20 Aug 2026LeadThe grid is the limit: 300 GW and curtailment
Inverter based resources
Copy link to Inverter based resourcesPrelims and Mains
A coal or hydro turbine spins, and the weight of that spinning mass steadies the grid's frequency on its own. Solar and wind reach the grid through power electronics instead, so a grid leaning on them has less of that steadying to draw on.
- Solar and wind are inverter based resources, which give none of the rotating inertia a turbine does.
- That shows up as a lower short circuit ratio, a measure of grid strength, leaving voltage and frequency less stable.
Green Energy Corridor
Copy link to Green Energy CorridorPrelims and Mains
The Green Energy Corridor, begun in 2015, is the programme that builds the lines and substations to evacuate renewable power, to carry electricity away from where it is generated.
- Transmission is congested, so power from renewable rich States cannot reach the buyers who want it.
- It runs in intra State and inter State phases with central support.
- Right of way disputes, forest clearances and, in the bustard's range, restrictions on overhead lines have delayed the earlier phases.
What changed
30 Sep 2026
- The Cabinet approved Phase III, to strengthen transmission inside States for up to 135 GW of renewable power by 2032 to 33, with 50 GWh of battery storage.
Power exchanges and market coupling
Copy link to Power exchanges and market couplingPrelims and Mains
A power exchange is a platform where generators, distribution companies, traders and large consumers buy and sell electricity.
- India has three exchanges regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC); the Indian Energy Exchange holds over 80 per cent of the market, with the Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL) and the Hindustan Power Exchange (HPX) sharing the rest.
- Each exchange sets prices from its own demand and supply; under the draft CERC (Power Market) (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2026, a Market Coupling Operator, the Grid Controller of India, would set clearing prices from aggregated anonymous bids across exchanges.
- Under the CERC (Power Market) Regulations, 2021, a trader member may not hold more than 5 per cent equity in the exchange it trades on.
What changed
19 Jun 2026BriefOn 17 June CERC rejected HPX's plea for a three year exemption letting PTC India trade on it while diluting its stake. Mains: PTC India argues that once prices are discovered centrally, a trader can no longer influence exchange level price discovery, so the ownership cap loses its rationale. The Indian Express, 19 Jun 2026: Why India's largest power trader cannot trade electricity on the exchange it helped create (opens in a new tab)
Also filed elsewhere
- India's data centre capacity · on Semiconductors, computing hardware and data centres
A data centre is counted in megawatts of IT load, because uninterrupted power is what it must be given and constant cooling is what that power becomes.