Over the previous years, India has actually become an international leader in renewable resource (RE), ranking 3rd behind China and the United States in setups and power generation. More than 71% of India’s overall set up renewable resource capability, which stands at around247 gigawatt (GW),originates from solar and wind setups. This rise in tidy energy generation, especially from variable renewable resource (VRE) sources like solar and wind, is triggering a paradigm shift in power transmission characteristics.
Power transmission is a vital part of the electrical power worth chain, and a robust and resistant network is important for incorporating the increasing RE capability into the grid. Historically, India’s power transmission network has actually been amongst the most advanced on the planet, characterised by proactive preparation and upgrades that have actually led to very little blockage and strong functional efficiency. The considerably much shorter pregnancy durations of VRE setups have actually left the transmission network having a hard time to keep speed with RE implementation. The outcome is a growing space in between tidy power generation and the accessibility of energy evacuation facilities.
The diurnal and seasonal irregularity of VRE more makes complex transmission preparation, resulting in stranded RE possessions and underutilisation of transmission facilities. Presently,around 50 GW of RE capability is stranded throughout Indialeading to expense overruns, postponed returns, and lessened financier self-confidence.
The increasing problems in VRE evacuation and its combination into the power transmission network have actually triggered power regulators to increase their transmission preparing efforts. In September 2025, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Chairperson Ghanshyam Prasaddeclared the objective of incorporating 600 GW of renewables into India’s power grid by 2032. He kept in mind that to guarantee smooth combination, the CEA has actually moved to potential-based preparation, including that the strategies will be modified every 6 months to show continually progressing ground truths. Regular monthly conferences are likewise being held to accelerate financial investment preparation and avoid hold-ups in approvals and execution.
Challenges to an effective power transmission system
Turning the increased preparation efforts into real execution will need resolving the relentless difficulties that prevent the advancement of green power transmission, like problems in land acquisition for access, and abroad transmission devices procurement restrictions, to name a few concerns. State-specific problems– such as Rajasthan’s fantastic Indian bustard (GIB) case worryingthe seriously threatened bird’s deaths from crashes with overhead power lines— even more show the multi-faceted nature of hold-ups that transmission network growth can deal with, extending pregnancy durations of transmission tasks even more vis-Ã -vis solar and wind.
Rajasthan, in specific, is facing considerable transmission traffic jams, making it a hotspot of stranded RE properties. The main factors for this consist of postponed commissioning of transmission facilities, technical and environmental obstacles, and speculative grid gain access to. Since July 2025, around 8 GW out of Rajasthan’s 22 GW of functional inter-state transmission system (ISTS)-linked RE tasks stayed stranded. In addition, these tasks likewise dealt with generation curtailment of approximately 3.8 GW in the exact same month. These concerns highlight the wider issue of quickly establishing geographically focused RE capability without sufficient preparation and development of evacuation facilities. TheRajasthan federal government’s proposition this year to develop 2,000megawatt-hour (MWh) of grid-scale battery energy storage intends to alleviate RE power curtailments and enhance state grid utilisation.
The requirement for a tactical roadmap
An extensive state-wise green power transmission roadmap is necessary to guarantee that Rajasthan and other RE-rich states can sustainably incorporate future RE capability additions. This roadmap must be target-oriented and timeline-bound with plainly defined due dates and associated charges. It must include cluster-level need forecasting by collaborating with state IT, market, and metropolitan advancement companies to recognize emerging high-intensity loads like information centres and electrical automobile charging (EV) centers. Provided the continuous increase in electrical energy need and land costs, the roadmap needs to prioritise overbuilding of transmission possessions, even at the expense of preliminary underutilisation.
The roadmap must likewise identify the significance of energy storage systems (ESS). Important in power generation and circulation, ESSs will likewise play a crucial function in the green power transmission sector. At secret transmission nodes, storage systems can offer important supplementary services such as frequency guideline, voltage stability, blockage management, and black start abilities. The roadmap should include and plainly define the state-wise transmission-focused energy storage requirements.
India’s power transmission sector is extremely focused and averse to foreign and economic sector financial investment. Motivating involvement and promoting an investor-friendly environment will be vital to develop the requisite bandwidth naturally.
Transmission preparation and operations should utilize advanced forecasting, load-flow modelling, and real-time tracking to improve predictability and functional performance. Furthermore, there is a requirement to move beyond standard power purchase arrangement (PPA) or merit-order based dispatchsystems and shift to a security constrained financial dispatch (SCED) design. SCED optimises real-time generation schedules by representing restraints such as transmission limitations, generator ramp rates, and reserve requirements.
Eventually, a contemporary and robust transmission network will form the unnoticeable foundation of India’s power sector, one that is versatile, resistant, and completely lined up with the nation’s long-lasting decarbonisation objectives.
This post was very first released in Energy Watch.