High-Level Workshop on Accelerating the Decarbonisation of India’s Electricity Sector

The Lantau Group recently convened a High-Level Workshop on Accelerating the Decarbonisation of India’s Electricity Sector, bringing together senior policymakers, regulators, system planners, developers, and sector experts in New Delhi.  India’s renewable energy programme has delivered scale with non-fossil sources now accounting for over half of installed capacity. But as renewable penetration crosses 200 GW, the discussion moved beyond ambition to a more difficult question: How fast can India’s power system decarbonise without compromising reliability, affordability, and investment confidence?

Key messages from the roundtable:

• Plan ahead of system stress, not in response to it especially for transmission and flexibility
• Faster is not always better; the pace of renewable deployment must match what the system can absorb
• Markets matter, but they cannot deliver the transition alone in a volatile environment
• Demand-side reform is essential to absorb higher renewable volumes
• Stable policy and regulatory signals remain central to keeping the transition investable

Across discussions, a clear theme emerged: Good market design is pragmatic, system-led, and context-specific not textbook.