Relevance: GS-1 (Geography) & GS-3 (Energy, Infrastructure) | Source: The Hindu

1. What is the News?

As India faces extreme summer heat and an impending El Niño (which causes dry, rainless weather), electricity demand has hit record highs. To stop massive blackouts, the government is playing a balancing act: relying heavily on traditional coal plants while trying to use our new, record-breaking solar power capacity.

2. The Reality of Our Energy Mix

An administrator must look at actual generation, not just installed capacity:

• The King of Base Load (Coal): Despite our green push, coal still generated 67% of our total power during peak demand. It provides the steady, 24/7 electricity needed to keep the country running.
• The Rise of Solar: Solar energy is growing fast. We added a massive 44 Gigawatts (GW) last year, and it now provides roughly 21% of our power during daytime sunlight hours.

3. The Core Challenge (Why can’t we just run on Solar?)

• The “Duck Curve” Problem: Solar panels make maximum electricity in the afternoon. But India’s real electricity demand peaks late at night when people come home and switch on their ACs—exactly when the sun is gone.
• The Storage Problem: India severely lacks large-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). We simply cannot store the extra solar power generated in the afternoon to use it at night.
• Grid Curtailment (Wastage): Because we cannot store the afternoon solar surge, grid managers are often forced to forcefully shut down (curtail) solar plants to stop the power grid from overloading and catching fire.

4. The Administrative Solutions

How do we fix this mismatch?

• Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS): Using extra daytime solar power to pump water up a mountain. At night, we release that water downhill to spin turbines and generate hydro-electricity. It acts like a giant, natural battery.
• Time-of-Day (ToD) Tariffs: A pricing policy where electricity is made cheaper in the afternoon. This encourages citizens and factories to run heavy machines during the day (when solar is abundant) rather than at night.

UPSC Value Box

• Base Load: The constant, minimum 24/7 power the country needs, supplied by steady, uninterrupted sources like coal or nuclear plants.
• El Niño: A geographical event where the eastern Pacific Ocean warms up unusually. For India, it traditionally causes weak monsoons, dry spells, and severe heatwaves.
• PLI Scheme for ACC Batteries: A government scheme to boost the domestic manufacturing of Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) batteries, which are desperately needed to store solar energy.

Q. With reference to India’s power sector and renewable energy transition, consider the following statements:

1. In India’s current energy mix, the actual power generated by solar energy exceeds the power generated by coal-based thermal plants during the peak summer months.
2. Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) is a mechanism utilized to balance the grid by storing excess renewable energy generated during off-peak hours.
3. The phenomenon of El Niño typically enhances the Indian summer monsoon, thereby naturally increasing the generation capacity of run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 only (c) 2 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (b)