New Delhi, July 8 -- India's rising solar penetration is causing power-grid stress, with growth in renewables outpacing storage capacity and other measures to smooth the net load, according to a working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

Highlighting intra-day volatility, Sanjeev Sanyal and Satvik Dev pointed out that India's power demand surged from 224.1 GW in the morning to 270.8 GW by mid-afternoon on May 21 - a jump of 46.7 GW in under eight hours, larger than the entire peak demand recorded by the United Kingdom grid in 2025.

Electricity prices showed a similar pattern, with a unit of power scheduled for delivery at 1 pm on the India Energy Exchange's day-ahead market clearing at Rs 1.56, while ...