India Power Consumption to Double by 2020

Additionally factors like increasing economic activity, wealth and population, an improved standard of living and infrastructure developments are all expected to underline a continuous increase in demand for power in the next decade.

Electricity consumption in India, currently at some 600TWh annually, is set to double by next decade, by then it would have surpassed Russian levels in the process. KPMG’s Global Advisory Practice released a power industry research published under the title ‘Think BRIC!’ reveals that in order to supply this extra electricity, total generating capacity should jump by 90 GW, to 241GW, with an increased emphasis on nuclear, clean coal and renewable, including solar and small-hydro.

With per capita GDP rising by about 8 percent per year and expected to stay around this figure for some year to come, the growth in energy demand is enormous. While private sector investment in generation is increasing, India could face challenges until 2020 to comfortably meet its demand.

India’s peak power capacity deficit is expected to widen in 2010 to 12.6 percent. In addition to the generation deficit there is uncontrollable addition by the inefficiencies in the transmission and distribution systems and electricity theft.

India is an attractive destination for foreign capital investment since India has an advantage for future investment in production and manufacturing facilities. Government and private utilities are endeavouring to set up an infrastructure framework to facilitate investments in the country.

Compared to the other BRIC countries, India had the second highest growth rate between 2000 and 2008 with an electricity consumption of 5.7 percent. Despite this the country has the lowest electricity consumption per capita out of the BRIC countries. India’s electricity consumption per capita is expected to be roughly 841 kWh in 2020, representing only about one quarter of the global average.