India's power sector transforms into surplus in nine years: Minister R K Singh

India's power sector underwent a transformation phase to become "surplus" from a deficit in the last nine years, Union Minister R K Singh said on Thursday.

More than 185 gigawatt (GW) of generation capacity has been added "transforming the country from a power deficit to a power surplus", the Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister said while addressing a conference on the achievements of his ministry here.

The total installed power generation capacity currently is 416 GW. The installed capacity is now close to double the peak demand and India is exporting power to neighbouring countries, he said.

The entire world has seen how India's power sector transformed in the last nine years, the minister said. The maximum demand till date has only been 221 GW, he said.

For transmission of power, 1.97 lakh circuit kilometres (ckm) of transmission lines have been added connecting the whole country into one grid running on one frequency with the capability of transferring 1.12 lakh MW from one corner of the country to another. India's grid has emerged as one of the largest unified grids in the world.

Distribution companies (discoms) can buy power at the cheapest available rates from any generator in any corner of the country thereby enabling cheaper electricity tariffs for consumers.

The aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of discoms have declined significantly from 22 per cent in FY 2021 to 16.44 per cent in FY2022. The gap between the average cost of supply (ACS) and average realisable revenue (ARR) declined from Rs. 0.69/kWh (kilowatt hour) in FY2021 to Rs 0.15/kWh in FY2022.

"Against legacy dues of Rs. 1,39,747 crores as on June 3, 2022, 13 states/ UTs have paid instalments of Rs 64,196 crores," the minister said.

In the green energy space, Singh said, India has witnessed the fastest rate of growth in the renewable energy sector among all large economies. The installed renewable energy capacity (including large hydro) has increased from 76.37 GW in March 2014 to 173.61 GW in May 2023, reflecting an increase of around 2.27 times.

RE generation (including large Hydro) has increased from 190.88 billion units (BU) in 2014 -15 to 365.60 BU in 2022-23 (up to March, 2023). About USD 78 billion in investment has been received in the sector since 2014 (including USD 10.3 billion in FDI).

Besides, the government also took various measures to promote domestic manufacturing of cells and modules, usage of green energy and development of RE projects.