The 2nd International conference on Greening-the-Grid deliberated upon smart solutions for better grid integration of renewables in India.

US, UK and Germany to support grid integration of renewables in India

More than 300 international energy experts brainstormed innovative ideas at the Greening-the-Grid international conference in New Delhi to support India’s renewable energy capacity targets of 175 GW by 2022.

The conference was jointly convened by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID) from September 4-6 to share the benefits of large-scale grid integration of renewable energy for rapidly growing countries like India.

The variability and intermittency of solar- and wind-based energy continues to pose a techno-commercial challenge for stability of the power grid and its reliability. The discussions therefore focussed on how to raise the overall responsiveness of power generation and make the system more balanced and advanced.

Several peer-reviewed papers on upcoming opportunities, like mass charging of EVs, flexibilisation of conventional power plants, and regional integration of the South-Asian energy markets were also presented.

Describing Green Energy Corridors as a key requirement, Dr. Jasper Wieck, Chargé d’Affaires, German Embassy New Delhi, said “Policy cooperation in Green Energy Corridors was initiated and Germany also supported India in the expansion of the transmission grid to be capable of taking in more renewable power with concessional loans of up to 1.4 billion Euros through KfW bank. More funds are yet to be committed.”

The U.S., Germany and the U.K. have achieved a high share of renewable energy in total electricity generation i.e. 18 percent, 54.5 percent, and 33.1 percent respectively, through adopting innovative policies, market regulations and technology transformations. Their insights would be a valuable addition to India’s renewable energy targets, and the conference thus included high level participation, including representatives from India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Central Electricity and Regulatory Commission (CERC) and Power System Operation Cooperation (POSOCO).

For more information, contact:

Neha Khator, nkhator@usaid.gov

Mr. Hans Christian Winkler, pr-1@newd.auswaertiges-amt.de

Srijan Prabhakar, S-Prabhakar@dfid.gov.uk

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