FICCI-Nangia Report Flags Grid Stability Risks in India

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), in partnership with Nangia, has released a report on grid stability in India at the 2nd Edition of the Indian Power Sector Conference in New Delhi.

The report, titled, 'Grid Stability in India: From Diagnostic Assessment to a Reform and Implementation Roadmap,' highlights the challenges arising from the rapid growth of renewable energy and the need to strengthen transmission, energy storage and institutional capacity.

India crossed 50 percent cumulative non-fossil installed capacity in June 2025, five years ahead of its Paris Agreement target, with the share rising to more than 53 percent by March 2026, according to the report.

The report said that the system frequency breached the safety band prescribed under the Indian Electricity Grid Code for nearly a fifth of May 2025, while close to 10 GW of solar capacity was curtailed in real time to maintain grid stability.

More than 23 GW of renewable energy capacity was curtailed nationally between May and November 2025 to preserve grid safety, the report said. It also noted that India has achieved only around 80 percent of its annual transmission targets over the past five years.

The report said that energy storage capacity needs to increase nearly 4.5 times by FY2031-32 to remain aligned with India's National Electricity Plan trajectory.

It proposes a 14-point roadmap covering technical, regulatory, market and institutional measures, with actions sequenced across three phases through 2030.

Immediate measures include notifying system-inertia and grid-strength standards, completing cybersecurity compliance and identifying corridors for grid-enhancing technologies.

Structural measures within 24 months include establishing a technology-agnostic ancillary-services market, introducing mandatory model certification for compliance studies and operationalising demand flexibility as a market resource.

By 2030, the roadmap calls for amendments to the Electricity Act to provide statutory backing for grid stability services, integrating grid stability into national planning and scaling up storage and transmission infrastructure.

The report also examines international experience from the UK, Australia and the US, along with lessons for India from the April 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout.

Suraj Nangia, Managing Partner, Nangia Group, said that India's clean-energy transition has moved from a policy commitment to a financial reality, with investors, lenders and rating agencies increasingly factoring grid stability into their decisions.

He said that a grid that cannot keep pace with the capacity already built is no longer just an engineering challenge but also a capital-allocation risk for the power sector.

Arindam Ghosh, Partner – Energy Consulting, Nangia, said that India's power system has evolved significantly over the past three decades, with the country now operating alongside close to 283 GW of non-fossil capacity, representing more than half of its installed capacity.

He said that the report does not argue against the energy transition but highlights the need to address the physical and institutional requirements arising from the transformation of India's power grid.