Realising solar power’s potential for energy security

Several States have introduced additional charges or restrictions that reduce the attractiveness of rooftop solar installations | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

Recent geopolitical tensions in the Gulf have once again highlighted the fragility of global energy supply chains. For a country like India, heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, improving energy security is both an economic and strategic priority. Diversifying energy sources — including nuclear power, biofuels, solar and wind — is therefore essential.

Among these, solar energy has emerged as a cornerstone of India’s energy transition. The country has rapidly expanded solar capacity to 130 GW over the past decade through a mix of large solar parks and distributed rooftop installations. Yet as solar generation grows, new challenges are emerging in integrating it into our power systems and grids.

Large-scale solar (LSS) plants benefit from economies of scale and have driven much of India’s solar capacity expansion. But they also depend heavily on transmission infrastructure to carry electricity from remote generation sites to urban consumption centres. Building these transmission corridors is expensive and time-consuming, and in several cases inadequate transmission capacity has delayed the evacuation of power from solar parks. This is in addition to T&D losses.

Rooftop solar systems offer a different model: generation close to the point of consumption. Programmes such as the PM Surya Ghar rooftop solar scheme seek to expand household solar adoption and reduce dependence on centralised power generation. In principle, this decentralised approach should reduce pressure on long-distance transmission networks.

However, distributed solar generation brings its own complications. When households generate more electricity than they consume, the surplus is typically fed back into the grid through net metering.

Two-way flows

Electricity networks, however, were historically designed for one-way flows — from large power plants to consumers. Managing two-way flows from thousands of rooftop installations can create operational challenges for distribution companies, including voltage fluctuations and grid instability during periods of high generation.

Utilities also worry about revenue losses when high-paying residential consumers offset their electricity purchases through rooftop solar. As a result, several States have introduced additional charges or restrictions that reduce the attractiveness of rooftop installations.

Technological solutions such as smart grids and battery storage can partly address these challenges. ‘Time-of-day tariffs’, for instance, can encourage consumers to shift electricity usage to periods when solar generation is abundant. Properly sized battery systems can store excess electricity generated during the day and release it in the evening when demand peaks.

But another approach also deserves attention: aligning decentralised solar generation with decentralised consumption.

In many households, solar generation peaks during the daytime when residents are away at work and electricity demand is relatively low followed by a demand surge in the evening when solar generation falls. Other countries have faced similar problems: In California, grid operators call it the “duck curve”. This mismatch results in surplus power being exported to the grid during the day and imported at night.

One way to absorb surplus daytime generation locally is through increase in local daytime consumption. Electric vehicle (EV) charging can be an option; specially since it fulfils our transportation energy needs also. India’s EV transition is currently constrained by the limited availability of charging infrastructure.

Recognising this, the government has announced plans to expand public charging stations under the PM-DRIVE scheme.

There may be an opportunity to link these two initiatives.

Most rooftop solar installations under the PM Surya Ghar programme are relatively small, averaging around 3 kW. Individually, households may generate only modest surpluses during the day. However, when multiple installations within a neighbourhood or residential complex are considered together, the aggregated surplus could be substantial.

Residential colonies and apartment complexes, especially, could potentially pool excess solar generation to operate shared EV charging stations during the day. Such localised energy pooling could help absorb surplus electricity that would otherwise be exported to the grid in small, fluctuating quantities.

VOC Port at Tuticorin has done this at a large scale: localised solar power generation and a fleet of EV vehicles to add to local consumption which is highly cost-effective.

The benefits could be significant. Distribution companies would face fewer challenges in managing bidirectional flows and voltage fluctuations. The need for costly transmission infrastructure would be reduced. At the same time, EV users would gain access to more convenient charging

Ramachandran is former Secretary, MoPSW, GOI, and Shreyas is a public policy and IT consultant. Views are personal

Published on March 23, 2026