With the fast development of India’s economy in the past decade, the energy sector has become crucial in sustaining this growth. India ranks third in the world in terms of electricity generation and primary energy consumption after China and the United States (fourth if EU is counted) with electricity demand increasing rapidly. Nevertheless, electricity consumption per capita remains low compared to other big economies and millions of people still do not have access to electricity.

India’s energy consumption is largely based on coal with lignite, natural gas, oil, hydro and nuclear power also contributing to the sector. There is an increasing demand for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy. The total generating capacity for FY 2015-16 was 350.367 MW, a 240% increase compared to 10 years ago. Around 86% of this capacity comes from utilities.

India’s government has undertaken a number of initiatives to address the increasing energy and electricity demand in the country. The Union Budget for FY 2016-17 has allocated 300,65 billion rupee for energy – a 42% increase compared to the previous year and it is estimated that by the sum will increase to 367,2 billion for the following year. The power production target by 2022 is 175.000 MW.  The “Power for All” program is supposed to make electricity available to all the people in the country by March 2019.India was able to reduce the gap between electricity demand and supply to 910.7 GW on average for 2016 – 56% less than 2015.

The Northern region had the highest average peak deficit of electricity power for 2016 - 1.236 MW, follSwoeurdc eb: yC tEhICe Data Northestern region (277 MW).

Despite the continuous growth of electricity generation, FY 2015-16 saw the smallest increase since 2008-09 (4.5%).

Thermal generated power (coal, natural gas, oil, etc) is dominating in terms of generating capacity.

Consumption of diesel accounts for around 40% of overall petroleum consumption for FY 2016.