CEA Chairman Ghanshyam Prasad warned that recent global blackouts show the risks of relying solely on renewables, stressing India must balance reliability with its green push.
He highlighted India’s ambitious capacity targets, with power demand expected to quadruple to 2,000 GW by 2047, and solar alone needing to rise tenfold to 1,119 GW.
Transmission and grid operations remain critical bottlenecks, with HVDC systems facing cost and supplier constraints, and demand fluctuations straining both renewable and thermal plants.
Reliance on Renewables Alone Risky After Global Blackouts: CEA Chairman
India’s top power planner has warned that blackouts abroad highlight the risks of relying solely on renewables, as surging demand, fragile grids and limited transmission threaten the country’s ambitious capacity expansion plans
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CEA Chairman Ghanshyam Prasad on Tuesday cautioned that recent global disruptions, including blackouts in some countries, have forced India to rethink how far it can depend exclusively on renewable energy.
Speaking at the Bharat Electricity Global Energy Forum, Prasad said there are still many people who are curious about the government’s enhanced target of increasing coal- and lignite-based thermal power capacity from 80 GW to 97 GW by 2034–35.
“Recent global disruptions such as blackouts in some countries have forced us to rethink how far we can depend exclusively on renewables,” he noted, adding that ensuring reliable power during non-solar hours remains a major challenge.
Prasad pointed to India’s long-term projections, under which the country’s total power capacity would need to quadruple from about 490 GW today to more than 2,000 GW by 2047. Solar alone, he said, would need to expand nearly tenfold from 119 GW to 1,119 GW.
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“Is this achievable? What cost structures will emerge? Do we have the transmission lines required?” he asked, warning that transmission infrastructure, particularly HVDC systems, could become a critical bottleneck given both cost and supplier constraints.
He also flagged the often-overlooked issue of grid operations. This year, he said, was a case in point: demand was expected to touch 270 GW, but instead collapsed for months from April through June, and continued into July and September. This not only led to renewable curtailments but also placed stress on thermal plants, which were not even being scheduled up to their technical minimum.
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