Inflexible electricity grids causing ‘dangerous’ situations, says CEA chief

Despite adding a significant amount of renewable energy capacity in 2025, the inability of India’s existing electric grid infrastructure to smoothly switch between coal and solar-wind energy is leading to “dangerous” situations, Ghanshyam Prasad, chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) – India’s apex power-planning body – said at a talk on Thursday (February 26, 2026).

One of these situations occurred “earlier in the week” when an “oscillation” that was registered in Rajasthan was felt in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu.

“We have already started to see that because of the variability in solar and wind, there are oscillations that have started happening to the grid and this is really dangerous. We need to arrest them as quickly as possible. In one of the oscillations which I was just reviewing two days back, I found that the oscillation was generated in Rajasthan and that was even felt in Kudankulam. So, you can imagine the impact because our entire grid is integrated. We need to be very, very careful,” he said at a two-day India Energy Transition Summit, at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

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Grid oscillations occur due to fluctuation in transmission voltage and can significantly harm power-transmission equipment or cause massive blackouts. Kudankulam is host to India’s largest nuclear reactors. Mr. Prasad, however, did not suggest that oscillations were harming nuclear power equipment at Kudankulam.

In 2025, India added 48 GW of renewable energy capacity – the highest in a single year. This expansion nearly doubled the additions from the previous year, driven primarily by a massive surge in solar and wind projects.

Last year, non-fossil fuel sources constituted 52% of India’s installed power capacity (about 264 gigawatts) or more than coal, gas and lignite combined. However, nearly 75% of the actual electricity that flows as power comes from coal, because it is the only source of fuel that is available on demand unlike solar and wind. India’s electric grid not being ‘smart’ enough to switch between sources promptly and inadequate battery storage contribute to the oscillations Mr. Prasad was referring to.

The discrepancies forced power producers to undertake “curtailment” where solar and wind power electricity are deliberately switched off from the grid despite producing electricity. Between May and December 2025, India curtailed about 2,300 gigawatt-hour of solar power.

Mr. Prasad added that India had a “long journey” to go in its energy goal where by 2047 nearly four times the installed capacity of today would likely be added. “That means what we are targeting 500 gigawatts by 2030… By 2070, that figure might reach to around 6,000 gigawatts in that timeframe,” he said in reference to India’s goals of being carbon-neutral by 2070, “We have a long journey to go. We cannot take a shortcut and we all have to be prepared to take all efforts to see that it gets in the right perspective.”