India’s Energy Demand: A Concurrent Outlook
During the 2020-21 financial year, ending in April 2020, the total power demand for India was at 1,33,315 MW. The power supplied/generated was 1,32,779 MW1. There is still a demand gap of 536 MW. It implies a tremendous opportunity for the power sector industries. For the ambient or renewable energy sector, this is a golden opportunity, as the Indian Government plans to add 175 GW of renewable energy production capacity by 2022 (Kumar et al., 2020). Out of this 175 GW of renewable energy production plan, 100 GW will be produced by using solar energy and 60 GW will be produced by the wind power (IBEF, 2020b).
With the latest report from India Brand Equity Foundation March 2020, India has the capability of producing 370.04 GW of including thermal, renewable, hydro, and nuclear power plants (IBEF, 2020a).
Figure 1. India's power generation capacity according to sectors. Numbers in GigaWatt. Data Source: IBEF Report, Power March 2020.
Now, let us understand the present renewable energy producing capability in India. The total installed renewable energy producing capacity in India is 86.75 GW. A further bifurcation of the sector is provided in the Figure 2.
Figure 2. Installed Renewable Energy Capacity in India. Numbers are in GigaWatt. Data collected from IBEF Renewable Energy Report March 2020.