TERI Leads Dialogue on Renewable Energy Future

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) brought together crucial leaders from the energy sector for a high-level public dialogue on advancing India’s renewable energy and storage ecosystem. The conference, named “Accelerating Renewable Energy and Storehouse Procurement for a Smoother Energy Transition,” was held on November 7, 2025, at The Dome, Hotel Ambassador, New Delhi. The event gathered policymakers, energy experts, inventors, serviceability, and assiduity leaders to deliberate on innovative strategies for integrating renewable energy (shaft) and storehouse technologies into India’s power system. 

The dialogue took place amid India’s ambitious targets to achieve net-zero emigrations and expand renewable energy capacity. With renewable energy contributing an increasing share to the public grid, challenges of storage, transmission, and grid stability have become central to India’s energy transition. The conference aimed to identify nonsupervisory reforms, financing mechanisms, and technological pathways to produce a more flexible power structure. 

The session began with a welcome address by Mr. A.K. Saxena, Senior Director at TERI, who emphasized the institute’s focus on enabling a smooth renewable energy transition. He stressed crucial areas similar to renewable energy procurement, transmission backups, pumped storage systems (PSP), concentrated solar power (CSP), and battery energy storage systems (BESS), which are essential for increasing grid stability and energy security. 

Delivering the keynote address, Mr. Ghanshyam Prasad, Chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Government of India, underscored the critical need for balancing renewable and thermal power generation to maintain grid trustability. Pertaining to recent grid imbalances observed in Rajasthan due to vast renewable generation, he explained that unbridled expansion without a similar storehouse capacity could destabilize the grid. He emphasized the significance of battery storehouse and pumped storehouse systems, the latter being especially salutary because of their longer lifetime and indolence support. 

Prasad also called for better, localized rainfall soothsaying around generation spots to enhance power demand estimation and scheduling delicacy. He advised against overbuilding transmission structures, which can be economically hamstrung, and prompted the creation of state-position resource acceptability plans. Pressing the eventuality of concentrated solar power as an arising result, he stated that CSP could become a pivotal element in India’s energy blend, offering long-duration storehouse capabilities and operations beyond electricity generation. 

Adding a state-position perspective, Mr. Manu Shrivastava, the fresh Chief Secretary of the New and Renewable Energy Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, participated in details about the state’s ongoing renewable and storehouse systems. Madhya Pradesh presently has 15.4 GW of functional capacity and nearly 40 GW under construction, including advanced mongrel models that combine solar generation with storehouses. He cited major enterprises similar to a 2,000 MW solar-plus-1,000 MW battery design and a 1,200 MW solar factory equipped with a long-duration storehouse. Mr. Shrivastava also bandied measures introduced to insure up to 95 peak-hour power vacuity and the perpetration of performance-linked penalties to insure responsibility among inventors. 

He spoke about innovative business models like “storehouse-as-a-service,” which can make storehouse structure more accessible, and cooperative solar-plus-storehouse gambles between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Stressing the significance of rigidity, he pointed out that policy fabrics must evolve to support interstate cooperation and ameliorate overall grid stability. 

The thematic sessions that followed excavated deeper into critical challenges and openings in renewable energy integration. Experts from associations including the CEA, Central Transmission Utility (CTU), and the public Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shared in ferocious conversations on transmission planning, requested reforms, and technological inventions. The experts agreed that India’s coming phase of energy growth depends not just on expanding renewable capacity but also on resolving transmission constraints, strengthening distribution systems, and enabling large-scale energy storehouse relinquishment. 

A significant portion of the discussion centered around pumped storage systems (PSP), which are gaining instigation as a dependable and long-term storehouse option. Dr. Satya Priya Rath, Managing Director of the Grid Corporation of Odisha Limited (GRIDCO), stressed Odisha’s progress in relating 10–11 eventuality spots for unrestricted-circle PSP feasibility studies. He explained that PSP offers several advantages, including a functional life of 70 to 80 times, essential indolence support for grid stability, and reduced import dependence compared to battery systems. 

Rath also noted that new government programs encourage private participation in PSP development and have simplified procedures for outwash systems by removing the need for certain concurrences. He informed attendees that a public PSP gate remains open until mid-November to grease farther proffers and hookups in this area. 

In the session on Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), experts explored its growing eventuality in India’s renewable energy geography. CSP can serve not only as an energy storehouse system but also as a protean result for artificial operations similar to hydrogen generation, process heat, and agrarian drying. Also, the dialogue on Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) emphasized the part of batteries in perfecting grid inflexibility and trustability while reducing dependence on fossil energies during peak demand ages. 

Concluding the conference, Mr. Ajay Shankar, Distinguished Fellow at TERI, outlined a strategic roadmap for integrating renewable energy with colorful storehouse technologies. He emphasized that India’s energy future depends on a balanced blend of results—battery storehouse for short-term inflexibility, pumped storehouse for long-term indolence, and concentrated solar for multifunctional operations. He noted that while BESS remains cost-effective, it relies heavily on imported accoutrements, whereas PSP is more sustainable and CSP offers cross-sectoral benefits. 

Shankar also stressed the significance of policy-driven support to accelerate CSP relinquishment and called for investment in exploration and skill development to make domestic moxie in advanced storehouse technologies. Drawing from transnational tests in countries like China and France, he stressed that coordinated government action, request readiness, and public-private hookups are essential to establish a robust and tone-reliant renewable energy ecosystem. 

Delivering the vote of thanks, Mr. Alekhya Datta, Director at TERI, reaffirmed the institute’s commitment to uniting with government bodies, assiduity stakeholders, and transnational mates to strengthen India’s renewable and storehouse geography. He emphasized that the perceptivity participated in during the conference would form the foundation of a comprehensive policy-acquainted report, designed to guide unborn reforms and perpetration strategies. 

The event concluded on an auspicious note, with a participated vision of accelerating India’s transition toward a sustainable, low-carbon future. By bringing together the country’s foremost experts and decision-makers, TERI’s dialogue underlined the critical need for invention, collaboration, and investment in renewable energy and storehouses to power India’s coming phase of green growth.