Just Energy Transition – Maharashtra: Overview of Consumption, Thermal and RE Production and Future RE Capacity

Namaste Everybody!

We continue this week with Just Energy Transition (JET) in Maharashtra.

Last week we saw how 5 sectors in Maharashtra account for over two-thirds of emission in the State. This week we look at the distribution of power production, consumption and future RE prospects. The article explains this in 4 maps.

In figure 1, we see district wise electricity consumption in Maharashtra.

In 2021, Maharashtra consumed about 1,25,000 million units of electricity[1]. As can be seen from figure 1, the bulk of the electricity was consumed in the western districts. Districts such as Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Mumbai Suburban, Raigarh, Nashik consume the bulk of the electricity. In Eastern Maharashtra, only Nagpur is the major consumer of electricity.

But where was the electricity produced?

In 2011, Maharashtra witnessed the first solar plants become operational. Since then, the state has added significant RE capacities. But the mainstay of power supply continues to be conventional power plants, running on coal and gas. Some of the thermal power plants in Maharashtra had been commissioned back in 1979[2]. We have included public and private thermal plants in the data. Figures 2 and 3 show the location of the power production.

In figure 2 we notice that the thermal power production is concentrated in the eastern districts of Maharashtra, such as Chandrapur, Nagpur, Gondiya.

In figure 3, we also notice that the RE (Solar and Wind) power production is concentrated in the western districts of Maharashtra. Regions such as Sangli, Satara, Dhule have sizeable RE installations[3]. RE power production is therefore closer to the districts where consumption is also the highest. In contrast, the eastern dis tricts have a thermal power dependency. The eastern districts are going to face the brunt of energy transition in Maharashtra. While there is significant upcoming thermal plants planned in the state, every thermal plant will be closely monitored for emission adherence and financial viability.

With the clear indication of energy transition in the policy, there is little doubt that the eastern districts will have a challenging future.

So how does the current RE power evacuation facility look up? In figure 4 we show the estimated evacuation capacity for solar in various substations across the state from MahaTransco (MSETCL).

We once again notice that the capacities are focused on the western districts of Maharashtra. For example, Pune alone has the potential to evacuate over 2.6GW of solar power[4]. By contrast even adding the power evacuation available for RE power in the 6 districts of eastern Maharashtra, we get just about 1 GW of available capacity. The population in these districts will have to adapt to changing priorities and technologies. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing solar infrastructure in the central and eastern districts.

As a nation, we are adding fewer thermal plants, but more RE plants. But is the pace of infrastructure development and upgradation keeping with the demand and the realities of Just Energy Transition (JET)?

Next week we will explore how the Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana 2.0 and the Kusum-C projects can increase regional availability of RE power.

With about 2 decades of advisory and engineering experience in over 30+GW of renewables, Arbutus Consultants Pvt Ltd. could be your partner of choice in your renewable energy journey. Please reach out to us at [email protected] to find out how we may be of assistance.

[1] Infrastructure Statistics of Maharashtra, 2021

[2] CEA, List of Power Stations, 2023

[3] MSETCL, Final Grid Connectivity, 2024

[4] MSETCL, Power Evacuation Capacities for Solar Plants, 2023

International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST) Mandvi Singh Sujay Dhanagare Rochak Jain Ashish Mehta Girish Shivakumar Pavithra Mohanraj #justenergytransition #maharashtra #renewablepower #pune