Power shortages up as sunset dims solar

Forced outages, lack of storage lead to evening power shortages

- Rituraj Baruah & Vinay C. Roy

India’s power grid has developed a new weak spot. As heatwave temperatures climb past 45°C and electricity demand surges, solar power is helping the grid meet demand during the day. But after sunset, it’s a different story.

Several parts of the country are witnessing power outages as the grid struggles to meet evening demand once solar supply fades, according to three people aware of the matter and grid data reviewed by Mint.

According to Sanjeev Aggarwal, founder and chairman, Hexa Climate, a renewable power generator, the challenge is now during 6-10 pm, when the sun is gone and demand is still high. “That gap is now the defining problem of India’s grid,” he said.

The supply crunch has been aggravated by the fact that around 40 gigawatts (GW)—15% of India's thermal power generation capacity of 239GW—is currently under forced outage largely due to technical faults.

The stress pushed India’s energy shortage to 15.87 million units (MUs) on Tuesday, according to data from Grid Controller of India—enough electricity to power around three million households for a day, according to the people cited above.

The shortfall amounted to 0.2% of overall demand, far higher than the 0.05% permissible limit set by the Central Electricity Authority.

Most of the shortage occurred in the northern and western regions—especially in Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab—driven by a combination of inadequate storage capacity, outages at thermal power plants, and discoms depending heavily on expensive short-term electricity markets, instead of long-term supply contracts.