Middle East crisis unlikely to affect India's power supply: Official

Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal assures that the Middle East crisis will have a minimal impact on India's power supply, citing the country's low dependence on gas-based generation. India is adding coal, wind, and battery capacity to meet demand.

The ongoing tensions in the Middle East are unlikely to significantly affect India's power supply, Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal said on the sidelines of the Bharat Electricity Summit 2026. Agarwal said India relies very little on gas-based power generation, and therefore, the Middle East crisis is expected to have minimal impact on the country's electricity supply.

Low Reliance on Gas Power

"In any case, we don't use a lot of gas to meet our demand. About 2 and a half gigawatts is what we already have, which is off-grid. So that is consistently operating. That has no impact of Middle East crisis," he said.

He added that some additional gas-based capacity is used only during peak demand periods such as heat waves. "Another about 8 gigawatts is what we use when we are actually really hard pressed, high-demand periods, particularly during the heat waves," Agarwal said.

Bolstering Supply for Peak Demand

To ensure adequate supply during high demand, the government is also bringing additional power capacity online, including imported coal-based generation. "What we have done right now is we are going to start the imported coal-based plant in Mundra that will give us a good 4,000 megawatts," he said.

The government is also facilitating faster commissioning of renewable energy projects to strengthen supply during non-solar hours. "There is a lot of wind capacity which is about to be commissioned, we have kind of started a specific facilitation for the wind-based capacity because these capacities can help us in the non-solar hours," Agarwal said.

He said India's solar generation capacity is already sufficient to meet daytime demand. "Solar hour, we have absolutely no problem, gas or no gas, we actually have no problem. We can very well meet more than 270 gigawatts," he said.

Accelerating Battery Storage Projects

To address evening demand, the government is accelerating battery storage projects to balance renewable energy supply. "For the evening time, what we are working on is facilitating the commissioning of the battery energy projects also. About two and a half gigawatt hours is already under commissioning," Agarwal said.

State-run power major NTPC is also preparing to launch its first battery storage project soon. "NTPC is also in the process of committing its first battery project, so that will also come in in June," he said.

Expressing confidence about the overall situation, Agarwal said the country's diversified power mix would help manage any potential disruptions. "We are quite hopeful that this Middle East crisis is not gonna affect us," he added.

Coal's Role in Balancing Renewables

He also highlighted the role of coal-based power plants in balancing renewable generation. "Flexibility of coal-based plants is actually unique during the daytime when you have plenty of solar. That is when you want the coal-based plants to ramp down. For the evening period, you actually need to ramp up the coal-based capacity," Agarwal said.

Expanding International Cooperation

Apart from domestic supply measures, India is also expanding international cooperation in the power sector. Agarwal said Russia has shown interest in partnering with Indian companies to manufacture power equipment in the country. "The Russian side offered us co-manufacturing of electrical equipment, basically power equipment in the country... It is going to be a B2B arrangement," he said.

He added that India is also engaging with African countries on energy infrastructure projects. State-owned Power Grid Corporation of India is working with Kenya on a transmission project. "Power Grid is engaging with Kenya. They have mutually worked out an arrangement for the implementation of a USD 311 million transmission project in Kenya," Agarwal said. (ANI)

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