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Grid, power sector and energy policy

The grid and the power sector: transmission, grid stability and curtailment, power markets and distribution companies, energy efficiency, and how energy is governed and planned. It serves GS3 answers on energy infrastructure.

Showing 1 of 7 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 July 2026.Show all

El Niño and the power system

Prelims and Mains

An El Niño year weakens wind and hydro output while raising cooling demand, so it opens a generation gap that is most likely filled by coal.

What changed

6 Jul 2026New subjectalso in news
- An analysis projects that weaker wind and hydro output with higher cooling demand could open a generation gap of nearly 18 TWh over the year to June 2027, most likely filled by coal.
The Hindu, 6 Jul 2026: 'El Niño set to dent India's wind, hydropower output' (opens in a new tab)

Baseload: The minimum demand a grid carries round the clock, met by plants running steadily, such as nuclear.

Department of Atomic Energy: India's atomic energy establishment, which is not a ministry: it works directly under the Prime Minister.

Hybrid renewable energy project: A plant that generates from more than one renewable source, usually solar and wind, on one site and through one grid connection.

Curtailment: Deliberately cutting a plant's output below what it could generate, because the grid cannot carry or absorb the electricity.

Evacuate: In the power sector, to carry electricity away from where it is generated to where it is consumed.

Inverter based resource: A generator such as solar or wind that reaches the grid through power electronics, and so gives none of the rotating inertia that coal and hydro turbines do.

Power purchase agreement: A long term contract under which a buyer, usually a distribution company, agrees to take a project's electricity at an agreed price.

Also filed elsewhere

India's data centre capacity · on Semiconductors, computing hardware and data centres
A data centre is counted in megawatts rather than in floor space, because electricity is what it really consumes and what it must be given without a break.