Grid Congestion and Renewable Energy Curtailment: Assessing Infrastructure Bottlenecks in India's Energy Transition

India’s ambitious transition toward a sustainable energy future faces a critical structural hurdle: the widening gap between renewable energy generation capacity and the robustness of the national transmission grid. According to a recent assessment by the rating agency ICRA, the phenomenon of 'curtailment'—where power generators are forced to halt production due to grid congestion—has emerged as a significant bottleneck. This issue not only undermines the operational efficiency of solar and wind projects but also threatens the financial viability of investments in the renewable sector. The core of the problem lies in the geographical mismatch between high-potential renewable energy zones (often located in remote or arid regions) and the existing transmission infrastructure, which was historically designed for centralized thermal power plants. As India scales up its renewable capacity to meet international climate commitments, the grid is increasingly struggling to handle the intermittent and decentralized nature of green power. When the grid reaches its capacity limit, system operators are compelled to curtail supply to maintain grid stability, leading to wasted energy and reduced returns for developers.