GREENING THE GRID: Pathways to Integrate 175 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy into India’s Electric Grid, Vol. I—National Study EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Author(s): Palchak, D; Cochran, J; Deshmukh, R; Ehlen, A; Soonee, S; Narasimhan, S; Joshi, M; McBennett, B; Milligan, M; Sreedharan, P; Chernyakhovskiy, I; Abhyankar, N | Abstract: The use of renewable energy (RE) sources, primarily wind and solar generation, is poised to grow significantly within the Indian power system. The Government of India has established an installed capacity target of 175 gigawatts (GW) RE by 2022 that includes 60 GW of wind and 100 GW of solar, up from current capacities of 29 GW wind and 9 GW solar. India’s contribution to global efforts on climate mitigation extends this ambition to 40% non-fossil-based generation capacity by 2030. Global experience demonstrates that power systems can integrate wind and solar at this scale; however, evidence-based planning is important to achieve wind and solar integration at least cost. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the operation of India’s power grid with 175 GW of RE in order to identify potential cost and operational concerns and actions needed to efficiently integrate this level of wind and solar generation.