Power Grid in India and China

China and India are investing billions of dollars to increase their transmission capacity to accommodate the sharp growth in renewable energy. Both countries have aggressive plan to increase the percentage of generation from solar and wind energy. Fossil fuel energy is reaching the limits in these countries, due to the high prices of fossil fuels coupled with the major pollution concerns. However, the grid in these countries is not in a great shape:

a) In China, hundreds of megawatts of wind capacity is lying idle as it does not have grid connectivity. China has built more than 50 GW of wind energy capacity in the last 2-3 years, but its grid has failed to keep up with the growth. This means that wind farm developers are left high and dry as they are unable to sell the electricity to customers.

b) In India, the grid is also in a bad state which was demonstrated when large parts of the country saw a massive brownout due to overdrawing of the grid by some states. While the renewable energy farms in India are not facing any major transmission issues, they will soon start facing these problems. Tamil Nadu in India has seen some wind farms face this issue and we will see the problem grow as penetration increases.

China is said to have already spent $50 billion in building out an ultra high voltage power transmission line. The company is using state of the art technology from automation giants such as Siemens and ABB to build these power networks. India has also planned a $7 billion renewable energy corridor, which will help move the electricity generation from green sources to consumers.