India’s RE transmission gap

 India’s green energy transition lies in the rigmarole of techno-economic, legal, institutional and social complexities. While aggressive policy actions have led to commendable renewable energy (RE) growth with a quantum jump of RE capacity from 75 GW in 2015 to 250 GW in 2025, recent episodes of RE curtailments, primarily due to transmission-related constraints, have emerged as a grinding halt in maintaining the renewable energy growth momentum in the country. While India boasts as a country with the largest network of transmission networks globally, RE generation capacity overshoot compared to available grid infrastructure has been a major cause of concern for RE growth in the country now. Rajasthan has experienced a sizeable quantum of solar energy daytime curtailment of about 4 GW in several months in 2025, primarily due to transmission congestion, resulting in huge financial losses for the RE developers. States like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have also experienced similar curtailments ranging from 10 to 30 per cent of RE generation, particularly during the solar peak hours. More worrisome is the stranding of capacity close to 50 GW in the country, caused by the lack of adequate transmission capacity.

Transmission constraints get further exacerbated with the slowdown in building the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS) capacity. For instance, solar projects usually require less than a one-year time frame to be commissioned, whereas transmission lines take a minimum of 24 months to become fully operational. The time differences in build cycles of generation projects and transmission lines have translated into renewable energy generation capacity overshoot. Between 2019 and 2025, the solar capacity jumped three-fold, from 35 GW to more than 100 GW, at a CAGR of close to 24 per cent, whereas the transmission capacity addition during the same time is crawling at a rate of 6.5 per cent.

 Despite policy thrusts such as green energy corridors, GNA and T-GNA policy frameworks, waiver of ISTS charges, one nation, one grid and one price, transmission constraints continue to be a hindrance to RE growth. Energy storage projects, often touted as game changers, are progressing at a slow pace and are yet to achieve cost parity, hence scale. Against a target of 400 GWh of storage to be met by 2031-32, the achievement is quite poor because of high upfront costs coupled with supply chain disruptions.

Moreover, transmission expansion is deeply entangled with land, environmental and social complexities. One of the most persistent hurdles is securing the Right of Way (RoW) for laying down power transmission lines. RoW is a discontinuous easement that allows a person a limited legal right over someone else’s property, whether owned or enjoyed in common. While transmission line projects are exempt from obtaining prior Environmental Clearance (EC) under sub-rule (3) of Rule 5 of the Environmental (Protection) Rules, 1986, they still face multiple policy and regulatory issues related to environmental protection, forest clearances, land laws, and local resistance by communities. Compensation also remains a significant challenge, as existing legal norms provide low compensation, while market expectations are often 10 to 100 times higher. The Ministry of Power constituted a committee in 2005 to look into the discrepancies related to compensation and to devise a uniform methodology for payment of compensation. The committee came up with certain recommendations, which defined that in cases where there is significant damage, compensation should be 85 per cent of land value based on the circle rate/guideline value and Stamp Act rates, and in cases where RoW led to diminution of land value, compensation should be subject to a maximum of 15 per cent of land value. These were to be applied in cases where transmission lines supported a tower base of 66 kV and above.

The legal landscape governing the electricity sector also reveals deep structural gaps. The Electricity Act, 2003 provides the foundational legal and regulatory framework for setting up transmission projects, particularly for integrating RE. These gaps were highlighted in the Supreme Court’s 2024 judgment in MK Ranjitsinh v Union of India (2024), which examined the threat posed by overhead transmission lines to the endangered Great Indian Bustard. While the judgment provides a balance between development and environment, it also underlines the legal shortcomings, as the Electricity Act, 2003 does not deal with land acquisition for the setting up of transmission lines. As a consequence, India’s green energy transition faces numerous challenges at the intersection of multiple land laws, environmental conservation and social contestations. Therefore, it is extremely pertinent to integrate RE expansion with transmission planning, as lack of coordination between generation capacity and grid infrastructure can lead to inefficiencies in the energy transition. Taking states into confidence could also resolve some of the complexities associated with transmitting energy.

Dr Gopal K. Sarangi and Dr Gaurika Chugh are faculty members of Department of Policy and Management Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, India; views are personal