India’s Union Cabinet approves a ₹1.86 lakh crore plan to bolster the power grid and integrate large-scale battery storage, aiming to support the country’s ambitious renewable energy targets and ensure a reliable clean energy future.
India’s Union Cabinet has approved a ₹1.86 lakh crore push to strengthen the country’s power grid for the next wave of renewable energy, in a move that combines new transmission lines with large-scale battery storage.
The Green Energy Corridor Phase-III scheme is designed to expand intra-state transmission capacity so that as much as 135 gigawatt of renewable electricity can be moved more efficiently across states and Union Territories, according to the government. It also includes plans for 50 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage systems, which will be installed either near renewable energy projects or at other strategically important points on the grid.
Officials said the battery systems are intended to ease the problems that often come with solar and wind power, including intermittency, congestion on transmission lines, peak-hour curtailment and the need to meet demand when the sun is not shining. The Cabinet said the scheme is meant to be in place by financial year 2032-33 and carries total central financial support of ₹54,082 crore, which is expected to help offset intra-state transmission charges and keep power costs lower.
The plan allocates ₹1.36 lakh crore for intra-state transmission development and ₹50,000 crore for battery storage. New greenfield projects under the transmission component will be awarded through tariff-based competitive bidding, while brownfield upgrades and network-strengthening work will be handled on a cost-plus basis. State transmission utilities will act as the overall implementing agencies, with transmission service providers taking part under a build-own-operate-maintain model.
The Cabinet said the scheme should support India’s wider clean-energy ambitions, including a target of 900 GW of installed non-fossil capacity by 2035. It is also expected to create jobs across power, manufacturing and construction, while helping to build a domestic battery storage industry. That sits alongside India’s broader push to lift renewable capacity toward 500 GW by 2030, a goal that depends not only on adding generation, but also on building the grid infrastructure needed to carry it.
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