Grid, flexibility, and transmission constraints amid limited battery storage forced India to curtail as much as 118.6 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity in September, data by India’s JMK Research & Analytics showed.
A total of 118.6 GW of renewable energy capacity was affected by curtailment last month, including 96.9 GW of solar and 21.7 GW of wind capacity, according to data from regulator Grid-India.
“Key reasons for RE curtailment include demand-generation mismatches, transmission constraints, limited storage and grid flexibility, and seasonal overlaps between high renewable output and moderate demand,” JMK Research & Analytics said.
The curtailed renewable energy was equivalent to 1.28% of total renewable energy generation in India last month.
Between May and August, curtailments in India surged fourfold compared to last year, as 44.6 GW of new solar capacity was added, pressuring transmission infrastructure and flexibility, according to JMK’s analysis.
The growing curtailments signal that the surge in India’s solar and wind power capacity is not being matched by adequate expansion of grids and transmission infrastructure, and battery storage to manage the discharge of renewable energy when it’s needed.
India’s record renewable power generation and solar output were overshadowed by curtailments in July and August when India experienced power availability shortages.
Over 4% of the solar power generated in July and August had to be curtailed because of grid and operational constraints, the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) said in a report earlier this month.
The solar curtailments came as India’s demand surged between July and September and coal plants were increasingly operating with critically low inventories.
To address curtailments and a lack of flexibility in renewable energy sources, India plans to introduce, from July 2027, a regulation requiring developers of solar and wind energy projects to have battery storage installed at the sites.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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