New Delhi (ABC Live):India’s Energy Storage Strategy has entered a decisive phase. The central challenge is no longer how much renewable power the country can generate. Instead, the challenge is how the grid absorbs surplus electricity, manages daily fluctuations, and remains stable during peak demand.

India’s renewable energy transition has entered a decisive phase. The core challenge is no longer how much electricity the country can generate. Instead, the challenge is how the grid absorbs surplus renewable power, manages daily fluctuations, and remains stable during peak demand.

As solar and wind capacity expand rapidly, reliability now depends on flexibility. Without energy storage, clean power risks curtailment or grid stress. Therefore, storage has moved from a future option to a present necessity.

However, India has not launched a headline-driven, subsidy-heavy storage mission. Nor has it relied on one-off incentives. Instead, policymakers have taken a quieter and more institutional path. Regulators now embed storage into grid planning, market design, and real-time operations.

As a result, energy storage no longer sits at the margins of power policy. It increasingly shapes how India plans capacity, prices flexibility, and balances supply and demand.

Storage as a Core Grid Function, Not a Standalone Scheme

Unlike several advanced economies, India has avoided treating energy storage as an isolated programme. Instead, institutions have integrated storage into statutory planning frameworks, including the National Electricity Plan and the Resource Adequacy Guidelines.

This approach reflects a deliberate policy choice. India does not want storage to depend on temporary subsidies. It wants storage to function as permanent grid infrastructure.

Consequently, regulators now recognise storage as an active system resource. Storage assets can stabilise frequency, manage congestion, support peak demand, and assist grid recovery after outages—roles earlier reserved for conventional power plants.

What the Government’s Latest Disclosure Shows

A Lok Sabha reply by the Ministry of Power dated 18 December 2025 provides rare clarity on this evolving strategy. Instead of announcing fresh targets, the reply explains how India is preparing for a future in which renewables dominate generation, but storage governs reliability.

Notably, the response highlights coordination rather than schemes. Planning authorities, grid operators, and regulators now work together. Therefore, storage deployment flows from system needs rather than political announcements.

As renewable penetration rises, this institutional design matters more than headline capacity numbers.

What Concrete Steps Has the Government Taken?

To manage renewable intermittency, the government has redesigned grid operations rather than launching short-term schemes.

Key actions include:

• Promoting Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) as grid-scale assets

• Integrating storage into generation, transmission, and distribution planning

• Aligning demand-side flexibility with renewable supply

• Granting storage systems access to ancillary service markets

Under the CERC (Ancillary Services) Regulations, 2022, storage systems now provide secondary and tertiary reserves. Therefore, they directly support frequency control, voltage stability, peak shifting, congestion relief, and black-start capability.

As a result, storage earns revenue by stabilising the grid, not by standing idle.

How India’s Energy Storage Strategy Is Reshaping Grid Planning

To understand why India’s storage targets matter, it is essential to see how planners now design the grid itself.

India no longer treats storage as an add-on. Instead, regulators integrate it into resource adequacy planning, generation forecasting, and transmission expansion. The Resource Adequacy Guidelines issued in June 2023 explicitly require planners to assess storage alongside generation.

Meanwhile, Renewable Energy Management Centres (REMCs) improve forecasting accuracy, while Automatic Generation Control (AGC) enables automated balancing across regional grids. Together, these systems reduce uncertainty and allow storage to respond in real time.

Consequently, grid planning now assumes variability as a baseline condition. Storage exists not to correct planning errors but to manage structural volatility.

India’s Energy Storage Deployment Framework (Official Signals)

Why India’s Energy Storage Strategy Is Not Overrated

At first glance, the Central Electricity Authority’s projections—336 GWh by 2029–30 and 411 GWh by 2031–32—appear large. However, once placed against India’s power-system scale, these numbers look measured rather than inflated.

Importantly, energy storage does not operate in isolation. It complements India’s broader clean-energy reliability architecture, which now also includes a renewed policy push for firm, low-carbon baseload. In this context, India’s energy-storage planning aligns closely with parallel reforms in nuclear energy, particularly the statutory reset introduced under the New Nuclear Energy Act 2025.

👉 Related ABC Live Explainer:
Explained: India’s New Nuclear Energy Act 2025

Together, these reforms signal a shift away from fuel-centric thinking toward system-level reliability planning, where storage, nuclear, renewables, and grid controls work as an integrated whole.

Storage in the Power-System Context

By 2031–32, India’s electricity system is expected to feature:

• Installed capacity close to 900 GW

• Nearly 500 GW from non-fossil sources

• Peak demand of 360–380 GW

• Daily electricity use of 4,500–5,000 GWh

Against this backdrop, 411 GWh of storage equals less than 9% of one day’s electricity demand. India is not attempting to store electricity for days. Instead, it is securing critical hours of flexibility.

What the Storage Target Is Designed to Do

The planned storage capacity aims to:

• Shift solar energy into evening peak hours

• Provide fast frequency and voltage support

• Reduce renewable curtailment

• Act as contingency reserves during grid stress

At the same time, the target does not seek to replace baseload generation, deliver seasonal backup, or eliminate fossil fuels overnight.

Therefore, storage works as grid insurance, not surplus capacity.

India’s Energy Storage Strategy in a Global Context

Compared with battery-heavy approaches in California, Australia, and parts of China, India has chosen moderation. Greater reliance on pumped hydro provides duration, while selective battery deployment delivers speed.

As a result, India limits costs while preserving reliability. This balance matters in a system as large, diverse, and price-sensitive as India’s.

Rather than chasing technology headlines, policymakers have prioritised system resilience.

The Long-Term Risks Facing India’s Energy Storage Strategy

The larger risk lies beyond 2032. As renewable penetration crosses 35–40%, storage needs rise faster than generation capacity.

Electric vehicle charging, data centres, AI workloads, and climate-driven demand spikes will intensify pressure on the grid. Moreover, extreme weather events will increase volatility.

Consequently, today’s projections look less like an upper limit and more like a minimum floor.

Conclusion

India’s energy-storage targets align fully with its projected generation mix and demand path. They are not overrated. Instead, they reflect cautious sizing during a rapid transition.

India is not overbuilding storage.
It is quietly future-proofing its grid.

ABC Live Editorial Line

Energy storage is no longer optional infrastructure. It is the insurance premium for a renewable-powered India.