At the 9th National PSU Summit recently held in New Delhi, spokespersons from many PSUs, like NTPC, NHPC, IRENA, connected to the energy sector, presented their views. Among the various speakers, I found the remarks made by Pradip Kumar Das – Chairman and Managing Director of the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) – is extremely important and timely.
Das’ premise was – India’s journey to achieving the Viksit Bharat vision of becoming a USD 30 trillion economy by 2047 is fundamentally an energy story. He stated that green finance is critical to India’s energy security, industrial competitiveness and reduced import dependence.
I completely agree with his thought that India’s total power sector investment requirement is estimated at Rs. 50 lakh crore by 2032 and Rs. 200 lakh crore by 2047 – and that development finance institutions must work to de-risk emerging sectors and mobilise broader commercial capital.
Also, he pointed out that the dispatchability gap is the next critical challenge. While India has achieved 53.7% non-fossil installed capacity, non-fossil sources account for only 29.2% of actual generation. This makes storage solutions and grid flexibility essential priorities going forward.
His concerns have already been raised by many others. In fact, sources state that renewable energy addition at unprecedented rate has exceeded transmission infrastructure. Severe grid security concerns have compelled curtailments of solar power, directly hurting investor returns.
Thus, this is the high time when we have to focus on maintaining incessant funding for the power sector – and improving our transmission capacity. Although, Das also talked on the need of battery storage, green hydrogen, offshore wind and sustainable mobility etc., I feel improved transmission capability should be the ‘number one’ in our top priority list.
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