India’s peak electricity demand now typically occurs around 3PM during solar hours and again between 9PM and 11PM during non-solar hours. This is driven by rising air conditioning loads, intensifying heatwaves, and growing industrial and commercial demand. Despite rapid growth in solar capacity, the grid remains heavily dependent on coal to meet the evening peak, highlighting a missed opportunity to lower power sector emissions. Energy storage and demand-side management are essential to address this gap by deploying stored energy to address the evening peak and shifting part of the evening demand to daytime. These measures will not only enhance grid reliability but will also reduce price volatility on the power exchanges.
This brief “Meeting India’s Peak Power Demand with Clean Energy” by IEEFA examines how electricity consumption is changing across sectors, regions, and timeframes. It highlights trends by consumer category, national and regional demand spikes, and daily and hourly load curves for peak demand days.
It concludes that addressing India’s rising electricity demand will require a strategic overhaul of how we generate, store, and consume electricity. By prioritising storage deployment along with hybrid projects, and leveraging demand flexibility and digital tools, India can not only meet its rising electricity demand peaks but also build a power system that is cleaner, more cost-effective, and climate resilient.
Access the brief here
