In a bid to support the country's energy transition and surging electricity demand, Union Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal has said that India’s power sector will need massive $2.2 trillion investment over the next two decades. India has set a target of achieving 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2030 and the addition of 97 GW of coal and lignite-based thermal power capacity by 2034-35. India has made a lot of progress in terms of adding power generation capacity, including renewable resources, and distributing.

The secretary said the next phase of growth for India's power sector will depend on the software side, regulatory frameworks, market design, pricing mechanisms, and institutional innovation. He said programmes such as PM-Kusum are already transforming farmers from passive consumers into active producers of energy. However, he said integrating large shares of in-energy requires new approaches, and added that time of day tariff, demand response, flexible generation, and storage solutions will all play critical roles.

He further said India's power sector has undergone a remarkable transformation that offers valuable lessons for stakeholders across the world. He noted that India’s installed power capacity reached 520.51 GW as of January 2026, with the power shortage declining from 4.2% in FY14 to 0.03% till December 2025. Renewable energy has been at the heart of this growth, particularly since 2016, with tariffs falling significantly. He said this progress has not been accidental. It has been driven by deliberate policy design, standardised bidding frameworks, renewable purchase obligations, and visions that have enabled scale while reducing costs. He added that today, India is not only meeting its domestically enabled energy leads, but also emerging as a manufacturing and export hub.