Union Minister Manohar Lal Chairs Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting on Future-Ready Power Grid

India Aims to Create a Robust Power Grid to Support Clean Energy Ambitions

On Tuesday, Union Minister Manohar Lal chaired a parliamentary consultative committee meeting under the Power Ministry, focusing on creating a robust and future-ready power grid to support India's clean energy initiatives.

The meeting centered on building a power grid that can handle rising electricity demand, large-scale renewable energy integration, and the increasing share of inverter-based resources. Discussed topics included enhancing grid resilience through transmission expansion, energy storage, renewable integration, advanced forecasting, and deployment of technologies that strengthen system stability.

A key aspect of the meeting was highlighting the importance of a reliable, flexible, and resilient grid to support India's clean energy transition. The minister emphasized that a robust power grid is crucial for the country's clean energy ambitions.

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The meeting also discussed the current power demand in India, with the peak electricity demand reaching 270.8 GW on May 21, 2026, which was less than the generation capacity of 283 GW. However, the demand was met, and the minister noted that the peak power demand had reached 250 gigawatt in 2024.

According to the minister, next year, even if the peak demand reaches 330 GW, the country's power grid will be able to meet it. He also emphasized the importance of solar power generation and the need for a reliable transmission system to evacuate power from one state to another.

The meeting also discussed the use of battery storage, pump storage to utilize solar power, and the phased rollout of prepaid smart metering, beginning with government consumers, followed by high-end consumers with more than 10kW load, with appropriate incentive mechanisms for voluntary conversion.

The meeting was attended by Shripad Yesso Naik, Union Minister of State for Power, MPs, who are members of the Consultative Committee, the Secretary, Ministry of Power, and senior representatives from key power sector institutions, including the Central Electricity Authority, Grid Controller of India Limited and Central Transmission Utility of India Limited.

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The committee deliberated on the emerging requirements of grid stability in view of India's growing electricity demand, large-scale renewable energy integration and increasing share of inverter-based generation resources and bulk loads. Discussions covered secure renewable integration, transmission strengthening, energy storage, dynamic reactive power support, grid flexibility, compliance with technical standards, forecasting, power quality and resilience of the grid.

It was noted that grid stability is central to energy security and that India's clean energy transition must be supported by a reliable, flexible and resilient power grid. Various measures for ensuring grid stability, such as avoiding a mismatch between commissioning of transmission lines and RE generation projects to avoid curtailment and encouraging suitable bulk consumers closer to large renewable generation complexes to optimise transmission investments, were appreciated.

The committee also hailed the record renewable capacity integration of more than 50 GW in a year.

Earlier on Monday evening, the Union minister chaired a review meeting in Chandigarh to assess the performance of Haryana's power utilities and various centrally sponsored schemes.