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308 Economic Survey 2021-22

ensure universal access to electricity for every household. The total installed power capacity
and captive power plant (industries having demand of 1MW and above) was 459.15 GW on
31.03.2021 as compared to 446.35 GW on 31.03.2020 registering a growth of 2.87 percent.
Installed capacity in utilities was 382.15 GW on 31.03.2021 as compared to 370.11 GW as on
31.03.2020 – increasing by 3.25 percent. Thermal sources of energy make the largest – 61.42
percent share of total installed capacity in utilities followed by renewable energy resource (RES)
with 24.7 percent and hydro by 12.09 percent. Details of all India installed capacity mode wise
and source wise is given in table 6.

8.75 The total electricity generated including that from captive plants during the year 2020-21
was 15.73 lakh GWh as compared to 16.23 lakh GWh during the year 2019-20, of which 13.73
lakh GWh was generated by utilities and 2 lakh GWh in captive plants. Between 2020-21 and
2019-20, maximum rise in electricity generation was recorded in diesel based thermal energy
for utilities and RES for captive plants. Overall, due to pandemic led disruptions in economic
activity, electricity generation was lower in the year 2020-21 which is now expected to increase
with the recovery of the economy. Details of mode wise source wise electricity generation are
given in table 7. Figure 44 gives composition of total installed capacity and electricity generation
for the year 2020-21.

Renewable energy – Solar, Wind, Biomass and small hydro energy

8.76 India has witnessed the fastest rate of growth in renewable energy capacity addition
among all large economies, during the last 7.5 years with renewable energy capacity growing
by 2.9 times and solar energy expanding by over 18 times. Renewable energy (excluding large
hydro) constitutes over 24.71 percent of the country’s installed power capacity and around 10.7
percent of the electrical energy generation for year 2020-21. As of 31 October 2021, India’s
total renewable energy installed capacity (excluding hydro power above 25 MW) has reached
over 103.05 GW. During the last 7.5 years, if large hydro is included, the share of renewable
energy in electric installed capacity is estimated to be about 38.27 percent (as of October 2021)
and its share in electric energy generation is estimated to be about 26.96 percent (for the month
of August 2021).The difference in the share of renewable energy in installed capacity and
electricity generation is because of the variability in thesunshine hours or extent of wind which
in turn will determine the utilization of the installed capacity.

8.77 In order to facilitate renewable power evacuation and reshaping the grid for future
requirements, the Green Energy Corridor (GEC) projects have been initiated. The GEC Project
aims at synchronizing electricity produced from renewable sources, such as solar and wind,
with conventional power stations in the grid. The first component of the scheme, Inter-state
GEC with target capacity of 3200 circuit kilometer (ckm) transmission lines and 17,000 MVA
capacity sub-stations, was completed in March 2020. The second component - Intra-state GEC
with a target capacity of 9700 ckm transmission lines and 22,600 MVA capacity sub-stations is
expected to be completed by June 2022 (BOX 10 on Transition to clean energy).