Karnataka, Gujarat surpass Maharashtra for effective integration of green energy in power sector

MUMBAI: Karnataka and Gujarat have surpassed Maharashtra for effective integration of renewable energy sources in power sector, thereby showcasing strong strides in decarbonisation. Maharashtra, on the other hand, missed out to be a top performer due to "low share in renewable energy consumption" among other factors, revealed a latest report released on Tuesday by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Ember.

"The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, a state discom, was responsible for approximately 90% of total power purchased by discoms in the state, and it scored low in the rating, thus lowering the state’s overall score," the report stated.

"Additionally, the state has only approximately 12% of its renewable energy installed capacity in the distributed solar energy category," it mentioned.

Maharashtra was a top-performer in 'Market Enablers' dimension, indicating that it is setting the stage for an accelerated progress towards the electricity transition. It also had a green tariff rate of 66 paise per unit for electricity consumers.

"The state already has a pumped hydro storage capacity of 440MW. Further, like Gujarat, it has a pipeline of other storage tenders (round-the-clock, battery energy storage and grid-scale storage) that should be commissioned in the coming years," the report added