The country’s installed power generation capacity has crossed 530 GW and is expected to reach nearly 600 GW next year, driven by rapid additions in renewable energy, thermal power and battery storage, a senior Power Ministry official said on Wednesday.Aadhar Raj, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power, said the country’s electricity sector continues to expand at one of the fastest rates globally, with annual growth of more than 7-8 per cent and renewable energy additions of around 30-40 GW every year.“With this battery storage, we already are at right now more than 530 gigawatt of installed capacity. Next year we are looking at somewhere close to 600 is what we will have. And a major chunk coming from the batteries, energy security is in good and safe hands,” Raj told ANI on the sidelines of a PHDCCI event on Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS).The official said the government is simultaneously scaling up thermal, nuclear and energy-storage infrastructure to ensure long-term energy security and meet rising electricity demand. India plans to add around 97 GW of thermal power capacity over the next five years, including 7-8 GW during the current financial year. A separate roadmap is also being pursued to build nearly 100 GW of nuclear power capacity over the next five to ten years.Raj said India recently met a record peak power demand of around 270 GW despite geopolitical uncertainties and volatility in global energy markets, with the power system successfully meeting demand across the country.On energy storage, he said the government is supporting more than 44 GW of battery storage capacity through viability gap funding, while over 5 GW of battery projects by NTPC are in the pipeline. Pumped storage projects and domestically manufactured batteries are also being promoted to manage surplus renewable energy and meet peak-hour demand.The government is also preparing to roll out a Rs 20,000 crore support package for CCUS technologies. Raj said the Ministry of Power will present a detailed utilisation plan to the Finance Minister outlining spending priorities over the next five years.“Tomorrow we are going to present the entire proposal for the budgeting of Rs 20,000 crores that the government has announced, how we would like to spend it in the next five years, different allocations that we will do and how we will go ahead with it. So that’s a meeting that we have tomorrow with the Finance Minister,” he said.According to Raj, the funding will be used to develop a comprehensive CCUS ecosystem, covering research and development, carbon capture technologies, storage infrastructure and carbon utilisation projects. The broader objective is to build a circular carbon economy in which captured emissions can be converted into commercially useful products.He also pointed to improving finances in the power distribution sector, saying DISCOMs have reported a positive financial outcome after years of losses. “For the first time we had a positive outturn from the DISCOMs and the financials and hopefully in times to come the DISCOMs will be financially viable and profitable,” Raj said.On smart metering, he said deployment is progressing nationwide and will play a key role in improving grid management, integrating rooftop solar systems and enabling time-of-day electricity tariffs. Industrial and commercial consumers have already been covered in many areas, while government buildings and households are being brought under the programme in phases.
