Green Energy Corridor Phase 3: ₹1.86 Lakh Crore Renewable Push

Green Energy Corridor Latest News

• The Centre approved the third phase of the Green Energy Corridor (GEC), with an outlay of ₹1.86 lakh crore, aimed at facilitating the evacuation of up to 135 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy (RE). 
  • Evacuation refers to transferring electricity generated from renewable sources to the places where it is actually consumed.
• This comes as India’s rapidly expanding RE capacity poses a growing challenge: ensuring electricity generated from renewables can actually be evacuated and absorbed by the grid when and where needed.

What Is the Green Energy Corridor (GEC)?

• The GEC is a flagship government programme to build dedicated transmission infrastructure integrating large-scale renewable energy — solar and wind — into the national power grid.
• What’s New in Phase 3: For the first time, GEC includes a dedicated battery energy storage component, with provisions for deploying 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Understanding Storage:

• Energy storage systems store excess renewable electricity during high-generation periods and discharge it when demand rises but generation remains low.
• They convert electricity into a storable form when available, then convert it back to electricity when needed.
• A GWh measures total energy produced, consumed, or stored over a period.

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Why This Matters: The Evacuation Problem

• Transmission bottlenecks and grid congestion — particularly during periods of high solar generation in the daytime — are causing renewable power to be curtailed or restricted from being evacuated. 
• This problem is worsening because renewable capacity is expanding faster than the transmission infrastructure needed to carry it.

How the ₹1.86 Lakh Crore Is Allocated

• Intra-State Transmission Systems (InSTS) – Over ₹1.36 lakh crore
• 50 GWh of BESS – ₹50,000 crore
• Central Financial Support (CFS) – ₹54,082 crore
  • The CFS is meant to offset intra-state transmission charges and keep power costs lower for end users.

Implementation Models:

• Greenfield projects (entirely new) under InSTS: Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) — private transmission companies compete to develop and operate a project at a competitively determined tariff.
• Brownfield upgrades and network-strengthening: Cost-Plus Basis (CPB) — project cost plus an approved return is recovered through the regulated tariff.
• Who implements it: State transmission utilities serve as overall implementing agencies, while transmission service providers participate in the TBCB process under a build-own-operate-maintain model. 
• The scheme targets completion by FY33.

The Scale of India’s Future Needs And Significance of GEC-III

• India is expected to add around 400 GW of RE capacity between 2030 and 2035–36.
• This would require about 160 GW of additional InSTS infrastructure.
• GEC-III is expected to support 135 GW of this infrastructure creation at the state level.
• Decentralisation Goal: The scheme would also help decentralise RE capacity, which has so far been concentrated largely in five states. 
  • Proposals have already been received from at least 13 states, expanding GEC’s geographical footprint — GEC-I covered eight states, GEC-II covered seven states.
• Boosting Private Capital: Greenfield projects — traditionally developed by states via CPB using budgetary resources or loans — will now be opened to TBCB. 
  • Experts draw a parallel with inter-state transmission (ISTS), where transmission service providers bring in capital upfront and recover it over a 35-year period. 
  • The same model will now apply at the state level, aiming to maximise private capital inflow and competition.

The Challenges So Far

• Persistent delays. MNRE is implementing GEC in two phases (GEC-I and GEC-II) to augment transmission lines and transformation capacity. Both have faced consistent delays:
  • GEC-I: Now expected to complete by March 2027.
  • GEC-II: All projects expected to complete by 2028.
• A steering committee at the Cabinet Secretary level will monitor GEC-II and GEC-III progress twice a year.
• Transmission constraints are a major barrier to evacuating RE power. In FY26, around 6,900 GWh of clean electricity faced restrictions due to a mismatch between rapid RE deployment and the pace of transmission infrastructure commissioning.

Why Battery Storage Is So Significant

• Large volumes of renewable energy have had to be curtailed — meaning grid operators ask RE plants to reduce or temporarily stop generation to maintain grid stability — particularly during daytime peak solar generation, when supply can exceed the grid’s absorption capacity. 
• This happens mainly due to a lack of energy storage capacity.
• The Storage Gap: Deployment of energy storage systems has not kept pace with rapid RE capacity addition, raising concerns about whether the grid can efficiently absorb rising renewable power shares.
• Current Installed Capacity:
  • BESS: ~2.9 GW
  • Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS): ~7.2 GW
• Future Targets (Central Electricity Authority plan, by 2035–36):
  • Total storage capacity: 174 GW / 888 GWh
  • BESS: 80 GW / 321 GWh
  • PHS: 94 GW / 567 GWh

Conclusion

• Generating clean power is only half the challenge — moving and storing it is the other half, and India has been lagging on both. 
• GEC-III’s dual focus on transmission and, for the first time, battery storage, signals recognition that curtailment, not generation capacity, is the real bottleneck. 
• Whether India meets its 2035–36 storage targets will determine if this renewable energy boom translates into reliable power, or continues to be wasted at the point of generation.

Source: IE | ToI