Central Electricity Authority sees peak power demand at 277GW for FY27, 366GW for FY32

The Central Electricity Authority has notified the much-awaited National Electricity Plan.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has notified the much-awaited National Electricity Plan (NEP), which covers a review for the period 2017-22 and offers a detailed plan for the period 2022-27. Besides, it also gives a perspective plan for the period 2027-32.

Here are the highlights of the NEP:

- It has been projected that electrical energy requirement and peak electricity demand on an all-India basis will be 1907.8 billion units (BU) and 277.2 gigawatts (GW) for the year 2026-27.

- Electrical energy requirement and peak electricity demand would be at 2473.7 BU and 366.4 GW for 2031-32 respectively.

- India’s likely installed capacity for the year 2026-27 will be 609,591 MW comprising 273,038 MW of conventional capacity and 336,553 MW of renewable-based capacity.

- Installed conventional capacity for 2026-27 will include 235,133 MW of coal, 24,824 MW of gas, and 13,080MW of nuclear power.

- Installed renewable capacity for 2026-27 will include large hydro (52,446 MW), solar (185,566 MW), wind (72,895 MW), small hydro (5,200 MW), biomass (13,000 MW), pump storage projects (7446 MW), and battery energy storage system (8,680MW/34,720 MWh.)

- The projected capacity addition requirement during the period 2022-27 to meet the peak demand and energy requirement for the year 2026-27 is 211,819 MW comprising 31,880MW of conventional capacity and 179,939 MW of renewable-based capacity.

- India’s likely installed capacity for the year 2031-32 is 900,422 MW comprising 304,147 MW of conventional capacity and 596,275 MW of renewable-based capacity.

- Apart from under-construction coal-based capacity of 26.9GW, the additional coal-based capacity required till 2031-32 may vary from 19.1 GW to around 27.1 GW across various scenarios.

- The domestic coal requirement has been estimated to be 866.4 Million Tonnes for the year 2026-27 and 1025.8 Million Tonnes for the year 2031-32 and an estimated requirement of 28.9 MT of coal imports for the plants designed to run on imported coal.

- The total fund requirement for 2022-2027 is estimated to be Rs 14,54,188 crore. Similarly, the total fund requirement for the period 2027-2032 has been estimated to be Rs 19,06,406 crore.

- Power project developers will be required to infuse equity amount of Rs 3,63,547 crore and arrange total debt of Rs 10,90,641 crore based on the estimation of fund requirement for the period 2022-27.

- Capacity totalling 10044.295 MW for 2017-22 has been retired. This includes retired coal and gas-based capacity totalling 2695.295 MW, which was not envisaged to retire during the period 2017-22. A power capacity of 2121.5 MW has been considered for retirement in 2022-32.​