Commentary by Mr Parvesh Sharma
India is witnessing a
rapid growth of data centres in the country. Installed data-centre power
capacity has increased from 375 MW in 2020 to 1575 MW presently and is expected
to reach around 17 GW by 2031-32. This has prompted Central Electricity Authority
(CEA) to examine their impact on country’s power system and grid stability. As
these loads are geographically concentrated and have 24X7 requirement, few
states have raised concerns about their large and sudden purchases from power
market. This exercise will build on earlier efforts by CEA, Central
Transmission Utility of India Ltd. (CTU) and Grid Controller of India Ltd.
(Grid-India) in the same area.
This
proposed step reflects a change in regulatory philosophy in the electricity
sector. The traditional planning used to focus on generation, transmission,
distribution and the regulatory focus used to be on regulating tariffs, supply
and economic transactions in the sector. However, the increasing penetration of
Renewable Energy (RE), Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and large load
centres has made the institutions follow a more dynamic and system-oriented
approach. The planners and regulators are now increasingly trying to regulate
the behaviour of the system by moving from ex-post grid planning to anticipatory
planning/regulation.
On supply side, RE
generation by nature is variable and BESS is suitable for rapid response,
balancing, ancillary services etc. On load side, data centres are large,
concentrated and continuous loads with significant implications on transmission
network, voltage management and system operations. Therefore, the central
question before sector planners/regulators has rightly evolved from ‘how to
price or supply electricity’ to ‘how this new kind of resources and loads
interact to maintain grid stability, flexibility and security’.
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