
Opinion: Spain's Huge Power Blackout Is A Wake-Up Call For India
For Spain and Portugal, last week's nationwide blackout may have felt unprecedented. But in India, we have lived through these already. In July 2012, a grid collapse caused 400 million Indians to lose access to power, many of them for days. Most assume that, as the country grows richer and energy becomes more abundant, such problems won't recur.
But, as Europe has learned, preventing grid collapse is a constant endeavor, not a battle that you only fight once. India's government has prioritized energy access, vastly expanding availability to households and building more generation capacity. It is now time for it to work on grid stability as well.
As your energy choices change, your grid and how you manage it must too. We don't yet know what caused the initial disruption to Spain's grid that made it to lose its connection to France's more stable electricity network, but the additional variability introduced to its system by renewables - particularly on a sunny day - probably did not help. That should worry India's regulators.
This is not an argument against renewable energy, especially not in India. Politicians in New Delhi have correctly noted that solar and wind power meet three requirements they view as crucial. First, they might end our crippling dependence on imported fossil fuels; second, grid-scale solar energy is now quite cheap; and third, off-grid renewables can sometimes reach where the regular grid does not.
As a consequence, they have prioritized building out renewable energy capacity. Of the 34 gigawatts of generation added last year, 85% was renewables, with 24 gigawatts from solar power alone. Another 300 gigawatts is planned by the end of the decade.
Much of this is driven by private capital and entrepreneurial energy at every level. At one end of the scale, street markets in the poorest states are full of cheap rooftop solar sets. And at the other, highly valued companies like ReNew Power Pvt. and Tata Power Co. have soaked up investor dollars, promising to benefit from the nation's vast solar ambitions. This week, the United Arab Emirates-led green private capital fund ALTERRA and Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. announced plans to invest $100 million in the solar project developer Evren.
All of this sounds great. India does best on those tragically few occasions when its consumers and companies are left to make the right choices, and are given access to capital and supportive regulations. That is how the country became an IT superpower that now has the cheapest high-speed data in the world.
Yet the government has responsibilities, too. It has to ensure the grid can manage the additional requirements - both new consumers and new sources. This will cost money, but not even the government knows how much. Predictions vary from $107 billion to $500 billion, and even the lower end seems unaffordable at the moment. New Delhi hates spending money, but it is going to have to construct a workable plan for investment into the grid, and soon.
The government's tasks don't stop there. It must also try and figure out what's actually getting installed in terms of solar power, and who is doing the building.
Self-consumption electricity systems of various kinds - whether off grid, or the sort that can provide power to the grid as well as taking it out - come with very special issues that must be addressed. As BNEF Research has pointed out, one of the problems that Spain faces is that authorities there don't know enough about solar power generation in the country; it may have 10.5 gigawatts more photovoltaic modules installed than official data suggest.
Grid management becomes very complex under such circumstances. Ideally, you should be able to forecast electricity demand, when it will peak and who will put how much into the network under various circumstances. But a lack of clarity about self-consumption means predictions lose accuracy, and the grid turns vulnerable.
It has also become clear that all is not well even among India's large corporate champions of renewable power. One such, Gensol Engineering Ltd., has just run into trouble after the misbehavior of its founders came to light. Government raids on Genpact offices and various other problems have eroded 70% of its value in two months, and sent shock-waves through the solar sector. Clearly, it can't stay the Wild West forever. Regulators have realized that it is now systemically important, and corporate governance standards need to reflect that.
India's per-capita consumption of energy is still very low by global standards - 1,331 kilowatt-hours in 2022-23, compared to 6,257 kilowatt-hours a year in China. The government, responding to the demands of its voters, is determined to narrow that gap. We may not know how much and when, but there it is absolutely certain that more new generation capacity will be installed in India than anywhere else in the world in the next few decades. And the majority of that will come from renewables.
For a build-out without blackouts, regulators and the government will also need to work on better data, a more robust grid, and better-run companies. As Europe's grid collapse showed, some problems aren't magically solved when you get rich.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Time of India
17 minutes ago
- Time of India
Greta Thunberg detained: Gaza-bound ship seized by Israel; 'Madleen' sprayed with white paint, communications jammed
(AP photo) Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and 11 other international volunteers were detained on Monday evening after their aid ship, the Madleen, was intercepted by Israeli forces and brought to the port of Ashdod. The group had been trying to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza when their boat was stopped in international waters, according to organizers. Upon arrival in Israel, the activists underwent medical checks. Israel's foreign ministry confirmed their detention, while defence minister Israel Katz said the group was shown footage of the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel. Defense minister Katz said they were shown a screening of "the horror film documenting the October 7 massacre" by Hamas, but "when they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching." He accused Thunberg and others of ignoring Hamas atrocities by "closing their eyes to the truth." The Madleen was organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a group known for challenging Israel's blockade on Gaza. The ship carried baby formula, food, and medical supplies meant for civilians in the war-torn territory. According to the FFC, Israeli forces used quadcopters to spray the deck with a white, paint-like substance, jam communications, and play disturbing sounds. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo In a livestream, one activist said the substance was irritating her eyes. Thunberg, in a pre-recorded video later posted by the group, said the ship had been 'kidnapped in international waters by Israeli occupation forces.' Israeli authorities say the aid will be redirected to Gaza through official humanitarian channels. But FFC organizer and lawyer Huwaida Arraf said the interception violated international law and ignored a binding ruling from the International Court of Justice that calls for unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza. Amnesty International echoed that concern. Its Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the nighttime operation in international waters was dangerous and unlawful. US President Donald Trump also commented on the incident, calling Thunberg 'a strange, young, angry person' and sarcastically suggesting she take an 'anger management class.' Still, he criticized the interception, saying, 'Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg.' Hamas called the operation a 'flagrant violation of international law' and demanded the activists' immediate release. In Ashdod, around 15 protesters gathered with placards reading 'Resist genocide' and 'Stop state terror.' France confirmed that six of the detainees are French citizens and said President Emmanuel Macron has requested their quick return. The French foreign ministry also called on Israel to allow large-scale humanitarian aid into Gaza without delay. The Madleen had left Sicily last week and had previously rescued four migrants off the coast of Libya during its journey. The FFC said the activists knew the risks, noting past flotillas had been attacked or blocked by Israel. In April, another flotilla vessel was allegedly hit by a drone near Malta, though Israel did not comment. Greta Thunberg's LAST VIDEO: Claims 'Kidnapped By Israeli Forces' In International Waters Despite global pressure, only limited aid has reached Gaza. A UN-backed report in April warned that one in five people in Gaza faces starvation. The FFC said the seized shipment contained vital baby formula and medical supplies. Israel maintains a strict blockade on Gaza, especially during wartime, and has said unauthorized sea access to the territory will not be allowed.


Hindustan Times
38 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Shah's speech on Tamil Nadu ‘blatant lies': A Raja
Amit Shah is trying to disturb the peace in a harmonious state like Tamil Nadu, said DMK's A Raja on Monday while emphasising that the Union home minister's speech attacking them a day ago were'blatant lies'. 'His speech was three things — disgusting, blatant lies without evidence and divisive,' Raja said in a press conference. Shah in Madurai on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the MK Stalin-led DMK government for 'rising corruption, crimes against women and drug mafia' over the last four years and said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would form the government in Tamil Nadu in the 2026 assembly elections. 'Their communal politics does not work here. People of Tamil Nadu have repeatedly shown the BJP that their politics will not be accepted here,' Raja said. He added that they are not afraid of Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ' We are not afraid of Shah and Modi. Afterall, they are ordinary people. Why are they not able to win here? Because we have an ideology that is an alternative to theirs. As long as Dravidian ideology exists, they cannot gain a foothold here. We are not Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana. We are Tamil Nadu, we are Dravidam, they (BJP) cannot come here.' Raja rebutted Shah's speech point by point and listed chief minister MK Stalin's achievement while adding that the BJP-led Union government is creating confusion over the delimitation process. On Shah urging people to participate in large numbers on June 22 for BJP's conference on Lord Murugan in Madurai, Raja said that the people know that it is to whip up communal sentiments. 'You are not conducting this for the unity of Hindus but to bring in religious divide by going against Islam, Christianity and marginalised people,' the Lok Sabha MP said. Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief S Seeman too said that the BJP should not politicise Tamil deity Lord Murugan. 'There is a value for Murugan in the state. Why didn't BJP speak of his glory all these days,' Seeman told reporters. 'You take up Rama in Uttar Pradesh, Puri Jagannath in Odisha, Aiyyappa in Kerala, and then Murugan here. Do you think people here will be deceived?' In response, the BJP said Shah ensured that the BJP forms the government in Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi. 'He has come to Tamil Nadu to pack off the DMK in the 2026 assembly elections,' BJP's Tamil Nadu chief Nainar Nagendran said.


Deccan Herald
44 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Ramesh slams Shah, says tenure as HM of Maximum Boasts, Minimum Achievements
Hello readers! To mark the completion of 11 years of the BJP-led Central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the saffron party will inaugurate an exhibition at its state headquarters here at 10.30 am on Tuesday. On Monday, the war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party escalated after some pictures were circulated online showing an aide of a student leader of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's party taking part in the July-August 2024 student and youth agitation in Bangladesh. Follow this space for latest political updates.