New Delhi, 29 October – India does not need to add more coal capacity than its existing National Electricity Plan (NEP) 2032 targets, neither for reliability nor peak coverage, a new report by energy think tank Ember finds. The finding is premised on the assumption that India meets its NEP 2032 capacity addition targets for solar, wind and storage.
Ember’s analysis using a least-cost operations model finds that for the fiscal year (FY) 2031-32, if India meets its NEP targets for renewable energy and storage, 10% of additional coal units from FY 2024-25 will be entirely unutilised by FY 2031-32, while nearly 25% of the fleet will be heavily underutilised. Ultimately, coal-based electricity will get 25% more expensive in FY 2031-32 than in FY 2024-25, owing to falling utilisation rates driving up fixed costs and expenses associated with additional part-load inefficiencies, higher auxiliary consumption, and retrofit needs.
“India’s power system is entering a new phase of transition. As renewables gain a bigger share of the country’s generation mix and storage becomes cheaper, coal’s role diminishes. Building coal beyond the current pipeline is neither necessary nor economical for the country,” says the report’s author, Neshwin Rodrigues, Senior Energy Analyst – Asia at Ember.
