Expect power demand to grow at 6.5 per cent on higher GDP growth: Power Secretary
Expect power demand to grow at 6.5 per cent on higher GDP growth: Power Secretary
He also said the country continues to be dependent on coal as a source of fuel due to expensive storage technology but renewables have been growing significantly
New Delhi: India’s power demand is expected to grow at a rate of around 6.5 per cent in days to come on the back of higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, power secretary A K Bhalla said.
“We expect a big demand (growth) which Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has projected at around 6 per cent but with GDP growing at more than 8 per cent, we expect it be growing at over 6.5 per cent in days to come,” Bhalla said in his speech at a recent coal sector event here.
He also said the country continues to be dependent on coal as a source of fuel due to expensive storage technology but renewables have been growing significantly.
“We did an analysis of the amount of solar energy India can consume. We need to balance it with some coal-based energy because of intra-day variation that cannot be handled due to storage systems,” he said.
The power secretary also said the seasonal variation of solar, coupled with the peaking requirement which goes up after the sunset, poses a big challenge to balance the energy mix. “So, we cannot ignore coal-based power generation,” he said.
Bhalla also said India will meet its COP21 target of having 40 per cent non-fossil fuel based energy capacity ahead of the target date.