A senior official in the power ministry said on Sunday that India does not currently have any plans to increase the capacity of its coal-fired power plants beyond 2035.
“India wants to ensure its energy needs,” Power Ministry secretary Pankaj Agarwal told Reuters outside of an event. “We intend to have a coal capacity of 307 gigawatts as of 2035.” It would be “premature to describe what we intend to achieve beyond 2035,” according to him.
This year, India projected to double its non-fossil fuel capacity of 500 GW by 2030 and increase its coal power output by 46% from the existing 210 GW. According to Agarwal, the coal power plans meet the nation’s energy needs.
India has reduced electricity production for the most of this year owing to grid issues brought on by the integration of excess renewable energy into the system.
Agarwal said that after three years to assess the rate at which renewable energy is being integrated into the grid and the rate at which power demand is increasing, the nation may decide to add additional coal capacity.
Before deciding whether to add additional coal capacity beyond 2035, he added, India should assess grid issues and the cost of storing extra renewable energy in batteries and transmitting it to the grid.
In seven of the eleven months this year, India’s coal-fired generation—which normally makes up over 75% of the country’s energy output—has decreased annually for the first time since 2020 as moderate weather decreased the need for cooling.
However, in order to handle an anticipated spike in nighttime demand, a number of Indian utilities are entering into long-term agreements with coal-fired power plants.
