India’s changing urbanization, temperature and electricity use in households, industry, transport and other commercial activities lead to a surge in electricity demand. Moreover, the expansion of solar power presents new opportunities for the power sector. Having said that, the peak hours of solar power generation are during the day, which often does not overlap with the hours of peak electricity demand, which is during the evenings. For Ratul Puri, Chairman of Hindustan Power, this mismatch between the generation and the demand peaks shows that during the energy transition, India needs to strategize not only the quantity but also the timing of electricity generation.
As reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA), India’s peak electricity demand has increased substantially in recent years. In 2017, the country’s peak load was 162 GW, which increased to 250 GW in 2024. The IEA further reports that India’s summer peak in 2026 was approximately 270 GW, and that the country’s summer net peak loads typically happen around 8 p.m. Meeting evening peak demand presents a more challenging situation than meeting daytime demand. Solar power has the potential to help meet a significant portion of the country’s power demand during the day; however, for demand to be met during the rest of the time, including in the evenings, other energy sources must also be factored into India’s renewable energy discourse.
India’s growing solar capacity is altering the contours of the country’s daily electricity system. Solar energy is generated during the morning hours, peaks during the day, and reduces during the evening hours. Electricity demand may not peak at the same time as solar generation. Post-sunset, there may be increased energy demand for lighting, cooling, and other household appliances. Commercial and industrial activity may also extend beyond sunset hours. This may result in a mismatch between the timing of peak generation from variable renewable energy sources and the peak demand of the electricity system. Incorporating more renewable energy sources may also require additional investments in other flexible and intermittent capacity to address this gap. Ratul Puri’s views on the power sector are also useful to capture this aspect of the change, as they focus more on the required dependability of renewable capacity, rather than on renewable capacity additions alone.
One solution to resolve the timing difference is through energy storage. Instead of letting excess electricity generated during peak solar time go to waste, battery systems can store the electricity for later use when demand increases. It has been reported that storage is becoming an important element of India’s power system. ETEnergyWorld reported that India’s battery storage capacity reached 9.3 GWh by June 2026 from the addition of 8.2 GWh in the first half of 2026. Growth in battery storage was attributed to applications such as grid balancing, peak management and integration of renewable energy. For Ratul Puri, the key to storage is that it can tie renewable generation to when electricity is demanded the most. Solar energy does not need to be consumed as it is generated if storage is available to shift the solar energy to peak hours.
There are other options for managing the evening peak. For example, flexible generation can respond to declining renewable output and continuing demand, especially at times of high temperature when cooling demand causes a peak in electricity demand. On 30 June 2026, India’s non-solar hour peak demand was 255.2 GW while the peak supply met was about 252.1 GW, thus creating a supply gap of about 3 GW in the evening. Some of the supply gap was attributed by the government to the state transmission and distribution network constraints. These cases illustrate the benefits of a flexible system that can respond to changes in the energy demand. These benefits can also be met through improvement of energy networks and flexing of energy generation.
The solutions provided by transmission and storage address different dimensions of the same problem. Transmission moves electricity across different geographical locations, while storage helps move electricity across different time periods. In the context of increasing renewable energy, a solar project may generate an excess of electricity during the day. However, demand may occur at a different location and/or at a different time (for example, in the evening). Bringing transmission and storage together with electricity generation can help integrate a large scale of renewable energy into the system without compromising its reliability.
India’s rapid growth in renewables is changing. The focus has shifted beyond the speed of adding renewable capacity. Now, the challenge is integrating renewable electricity within the power system and making it available to end users. The IEA expects half of India’s additional electricity demand to be met by solar PV by 2030. Further, solar’s share of India’s total electricity generation is expected to reach about 18% by 2030. As solar PV becomes a larger part of the Indian power system, the evening peak will remain an important constraint for grid planning.
Storage, flexible generation, transmission, and demand-side management will be necessary to manage the changing consumption and generation balance. Ratul Puri argues that the future of India’s renewable energy system will be less about adding more capacity. It will be more about building a flexible system to store solar-generated electricity during the day to meet evening demand. As part of India’s energy transition, the focus will need to be more on developing electricity from renewables to be available, flexible and reliable when it is needed the most by the power system.