DEV Community: Ratul Puri

Ratul Puri on India’s Renewable Transition: The Shift from Scale to Execution

Ratul Puri — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:59:50 +0000

India has been adding a lot of clean energy capacity over the past few years. Solar farms and wind projects have been coming up across the country at a good pace. But Ratul Puri, chairman of Hindustan Power, says the sector is now moving into a new phase. Less about announcing big numbers and more about making sure projects actually get built and deliver power consistently.

Ratul Puri put it simply: India’s clean energy space is now at a point where it is not just about adding capacity, but making sure that projects are delivered on the ground with a focus on round-the-clock power delivery.

That is a real shift, and it shapes a lot of what is happening in India’s energy space right now.

Getting Projects Done Is Harder Than It Looks
Even as solar and wind capacity has grown, there are on-the-ground challenges that slow things down. Land-related issues, clearances, and other approvals take time and can push project timelines back. They matter more now that the focus is on actual delivery rather than just targets.

Delays in building out transmission lines have also held back a large chunk of capacity already in development. When the grid is not ready to receive the power being produced, nothing can move forward properly. This is something Ratul Puri sees as needing more coordinated attention.

There is also the matter of power sale agreements, which are contracts between energy producers and buyers. Some of these have not been signed yet, which creates uncertainty for developers trying to plan ahead. Getting these agreements in place in a timely way is something Ratul Puri sees as important for keeping projects on track.

Storage: Big Promise, Slow Start
Battery storage is one of the most talked-about areas in energy right now. Being able to store power and release it when needed makes clean energy more useful and consistent. India has seen a lot of interest here, with a large amount of storage capacity put out for bids in 2025.

But Ratul Puri notes that the gap between what has been bid on and what has actually been built is quite wide. A lot of tenders have gone out, but very little has been commissioned so far. He sees this as a sign that the sector is shifting from a phase where winning bids was the goal to one where actually building and running projects is what counts.

As Ratul Puri said, success in this market will now be defined by the ability to execute, not just the ability to bid.

Pricing and Long-Term Thinking
Energy prices in the clean power space have come down a lot, which helps adoption. But lower prices also mean tighter margins, making careful planning and cost management more important over the life of a project.

Ratul Puri has spoken about how even small differences in cost assumptions can have a real impact on whether a project works financially in the long run. Getting those numbers right from the start, and building projects that can hold up over many years, is something developers need to take seriously.

Digital Tools and Smarter Operations
Ratul Puri also touched on the growing role of digital tools. Things like better forecasting and real-time tracking of plant performance are becoming more common, helping operators catch problems early and get more out of their projects.

Ratul Puri described digital solutions as becoming central to how energy operations work, helping teams make better decisions and keep performance strong across projects.

What Comes Next
The story of India’s clean energy sector is still being written. The foundations have been laid, the targets are set, and a lot of projects are in the pipeline. What the next chapter needs, according to Ratul Puri, is a stronger focus on follow-through.

Getting projects across the finish line, managing them well once they are running, and making sure the grid can handle what is being built are the things that will define how far India goes in its clean energy journey. Ratul Puri believes the sector has what it takes to get there.

About Ratul Puri:-

Ratul Puri is the Chairman of Hindustan Power, an integrated power generation company with a strong presence in renewable and transitional energy. Over the years, he has been involved in the development of large-scale energy infrastructure projects that support India’s growing power requirements and its transition toward cleaner energy sources.

About Hindustan Power:-

Hindustan Power is an integrated power generation company focused on renewable and transitional energy. The company has been actively contributing to India’s energy transformation through the development of solar power and other energy infrastructure projects.

Ratul Puri on Powering India’s Next Energy Transition Phase

Ratul Puri — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:04:05 +0000

Ratul Puri believes India has made remarkable progress in expanding its renewable energy capacity. But the easy part is behind us. The real challenge is now underway, which is integrating a larger share of variable renewable power into a grid that was built for stable, dispatchable supplies. The next phase of transition will be defined not by how much solar and wind capacity gets added, but by how effectively the grid absorbs, balances and dispatches that power.

In early 2026, India’s power sector crossed a significant milestone, surpassing the 52% mark in installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources. The share of actual generation from renewable sources reached nearly 30% in FY2024–25. While encouraging, higher generation brings a distinct set of operational challenges that cannot be ignored.

The first phase was relatively straightforward, driven by rapid capacity addition, falling costs, strong policy support and positive market momentum. Now, as renewable penetration deepens, the system must manage intermittency, demand mismatches and growing balancing requirements.

The Challenges Ahead

A closer look at what Ratul Puri outlines reveals several layers of difficulty. One of the most pressing issues is that generation capacity has outpaced transmission and evacuation capacity. Rajasthan is a clear example. The state has 23 GW of commissioned renewable capacity but can evacuate only 18.9 GW. This means over 4,000 MW of commissioned capacity sits stranded during peak hours. High-capacity double-circuit corridors built to handle around 6,000 MW are frequently running at just 600 to 1,000 MW.

Storage remains another significant barrier. By 2032, India will require approximately 411 GWh of energy storage capacity to maintain grid stability during periods without sunshine. Current deployments of Battery Energy Storage Systems and Pumped Hydro Storage fall far short of what is needed.

Supply chain vulnerabilities add further pressure. India depends heavily on imports of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and rare earths, as well as raw materials needed for manufacturing solar cells and batteries. This dependency leaves the sector exposed to global supply disruptions.

Technology and infrastructure gaps compound the problem. Ratul Puri notes that studies indicate the current grid lacks the capacity to accommodate a higher share of intermittent renewables. Substantial investment in smart grids, energy storage and hydrogen systems will be required to sustain reliability and stability. In areas like hydropower and bioenergy, being a water-scarce nation adds another layer of complexity, requiring sophisticated water management systems.

Financial and policy uncertainties round out the challenges. Since electricity is a concurrent subject in India, both the Centre and states operate under their own specific policies, which can affect how effectively renewable potential is tapped. And while the energy mix spans solar, wind, biomass, hydrogen and hydroelectricity, the vast majority of investment continues to flow into solar alone.

What Ratul Puri Says Needs to Happen

Addressing these constraints calls for a coordinated set of measures. Supply balancing through flexible generation and ancillary services is one important avenue. Better forecasting of both renewable demand and generation will enable more systematic scheduling and improved demand-side management.

The real financial barrier, as Ratul Puri argues, is not the cost of renewables themselves but the investment required to transmit and integrate large volumes of solar and wind power. Even though solar and wind are among the cheapest electricity sources available, sustained investment is essential to modernise the grid while adding the storage and transmission infrastructure needed.

Curtailment practices also need reform. During periods of peak congestion, power curtailments should be distributed proportionately across all generators rather than placing the entire burden on Temporary General Network Access projects. Unused or underutilised grid capacity should be reallocated through real-time, transparent protocols so that available evacuation space is not wasted.

Better coordination between CTUIL and GRID-India is equally important, ensuring that transmission corridors with predetermined capacities translate into actual, usable power evacuation. These steps would bring stranded assets worth billions into productive use.

The Road Ahead

The next growth push for renewable energy, in Ratul Puri’s view, will come from hybrid projects, Firm and Dispatchable Renewable Energy, round-the-clock solutions, and integrated renewable energy systems rather than standalone capacity additions. Ratul Puri concludes that India’s power transition will ultimately depend far more on system integration than on capacity addition alone.

About Ratul Puri

About Hindustan Power

Ratul Puri: The Future Of Economic Growth Runs On Electricity

Ratul Puri — Fri, 29 May 2026 07:42:32 +0000

Electricity is emerging as a key driver of economic growth, shaping manufacturing, AI infrastructure and industrial investment. Ratul Puri believes India must build affordable, reliable power capacity ahead of demand, modernise grids, expand storage-backed renewables and strengthen infrastructure to gain a long-term competitive edge in the global economy.
For decades, electricity was viewed as a support system for economic growth. Industries expanded, cities developed, consumption increased and power infrastructure quietly grew alongside them. That equation is now changing rapidly. Electricity is no longer operating in the background of economic activity. It is becoming one of the primary drivers of growth itself.
We are entering an era where the availability of affordable and uninterrupted power will increasingly influence where industries invest, where manufacturing capacities are built and where digital infrastructure develops. In many ways, electricity is set to become one of the defining factors of economic competitiveness.
This transition is already visible across sectors. Transportation is moving steadily towards electrification. What was once considered commercially unviable for heavy mobility applications is now beginning to change because of improvements in battery density and operating economics. In several use cases, the lifecycle cost of operating electric heavy vehicles is becoming more competitive than conventional diesel-based systems. Once economics begins to shift decisively, adoption tends to accelerate far quicker than expected.
A similar transformation is unfolding in the AI-led digital infrastructure. Until recently, a large share of energy consumption in artificial intelligence came from model training. The next phase will increasingly be driven by inference and comute moving closer to users and businesses. This requires large-scale data centre infrastructure and far greater availability of dependable electricity. As India's digital economy expands, electricity demand will rise not only in scale but also in complexity.
This is why India must start thinking differently about power infrastructure. For many years, capacity planning has largely remained linked to existing demand projections. In my view, the country now needs to build ahead of demand rather than alongside it. India's per capita electricity consumption stands at 1,400 units per year (2025-26), compared to 3,000 units per year in Vietnam (2025) and 6,500 units per year in China (2025-26), a gap that highlights both the challenge and the enormous opportunity ahead. If India can maintain sufficient spare round-the-clock power capacity, it can create a significant competitive advantage for itself. At a time when many economies are struggling with transmission bottlenecks and constrained grid expansion, dependable power availability can itself become a reason for industries and investments to choose India.
At the same time, the focus cannot remain limited to adding generation capacity alone. The larger objective should be delivering the lowest possible cost of reliable power to consumers. That requires equal attention on transmission infrastructure, storage systems and grid modernisation.
The electricity ecosystem itself is also going to change significantly over the next two decades. For more than a century, grids were designed around centralised generation and one-way power flow. The future grid will look very different. Generation will increasingly move closer to where electricity is consumed. Storage systems will become more distributed. Consumers themselves will gradually become active participants in the electricity ecosystem.
India is particularly well positioned for this shift because renewable energy potential exists across the country. However, generation today remains concentrated in select regions, which requires power to travel long distances before reaching consumption centres. Often, discussions focus only on generation cost while overlooking the actual delivered cost of electricity after transmission expansion, balancing requirements and downstream infrastructure investments are added.
In the long run, localised generation and localised consumption can fundamentally improve grid efficiency. A model where districts generate and consume a larger share of their own power can reduce transmission pressure, lower infrastructure costs and create a more resilient electricity network. Over time, this will also support peer-to-peer electricity exchange and smarter distributed systems.
Storage-backed renewable energy will play an important role in this transition. Renewable expansion cannot rely only on daytime generation capacity. The next stage of growth will depend on the ability to provide reliable renewable power even during non-solar hours. This is where battery and storage technologies become increasingly important.
At the same time, India must remain practical about its energy requirements. A growing economy of India's scale will continue to require thermal, hydro, solar, nuclear and renewable sources together for the foreseeable future. The priority should remain clear ensuring affordable and reliable electricity availability at scale.
The progress made in India's electricity sector over the last few years has been substantial. There has been meaningful improvement in generation capacity, renewable energy deployment, transmission infrastructure and overall sectoral confidence. A great deal of de-risking has also taken place, which is encouraging long-term investment into the sector.
However, as the sector evolves, new challenges will continue emerging. Distribution remains a key area of concern today. Tomorrow, there will be different challenges that require equal attention. This makes long-term policy consistency and institutional execution extremely important.
There are also certain structural issues that deserve greater focus as infrastructure investment accelerates. Strong and equitable PPP contracts remain critical for long-gestation infrastructure sectors like power. Risk and reward must be distributed fairly across stakeholders. Efficient dispute resolution mechanisms are equally important because infrastructure projects cannot operate under legal uncertainty for decades. Alongside this, faster resolution of land-related issues and digitisation of land records will remain important enablers for future infrastructure expansion.
India has a unique opportunity ahead. The countries that succeed in building reliable, affordable and future-ready electricity ecosystems will emerge stronger in manufacturing, technology and industrial growth over the coming decades. In many ways, the next phase of economic leadership will belong to those who can deliver power at scale, efficiently and consistently.
About Ratul Puri
Ratul Puri is the Chairman of Hindustan Power, an integrated power generation company with a strong presence in renewable and transitional energy. Over the years, Ratul Puri has been involved in the development of large-scale energy infrastructure projects that support India’s growing power requirements and its transition toward cleaner energy sources.

Ratul Puri Led Hindustan Power Signs Power Supply Agreement With MP Power Management Company Limited For Supply Of 800 MW Power

Ratul Puri — Thu, 28 May 2026 11:53:32 +0000

Hindustan Power, one of India’s leading integrated energy companies, has won a bid from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to develop a solar and battery energy storage project with a contracted capacity of 150 MW of solar power. The project will require the installation of approximately 300 MWp of solar capacity and 300 MWh of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). Shaping India’s next phase of clean-energy growth, Chairman Ratul Puri emphasized company’s focus on building flexible, storage-led renewable assets that will define the country’s future power infrastructure. The project will be developed under the ‘SECI–ISTS–XX’ tender. It is designed for flexible deployment and can be set up at suitable locations across India. It was secured through a tariff-based competitive bidding process, followed by a successful e-Reverse Auction (e-RA) conducted on the ETS portal. It was awarded under SECI’s tender for ISTS-connected Solar PV projects with integrated Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).

Commenting on the development, Mr Ratul Puri, Chairman, Hindustan Power, said: “This project reflects our continuous commitment to advancing India’s transition toward a modern, flexible and future-ready energy ecosystem. Our focus remains on building assets that deliver stability and efficiency, as we continue to build future-ready energy infrastructure that supports India’s clean-energy ambitions.” This development marks another step forward in Hindustan Power’s efforts to strengthen its renewable energy portfolio and contribute to India’s clean energy goals. The integration of solar generation with battery storage will enable enhanced grid reliability, improved power management during peak hours, and a more stable supply of clean energy.

By combining solar power with advanced storage, Hindustan Power continues to support national goals for sustainability, energy security, and the delivery of clean power. The company is currently developing clean-energy projects across various parts of India. It is commissioning a 435 MW solar project in Uttar Pradesh, a 100 MW solar power plant along with a state-of-the-art 100 MW battery-energy storage system in Assam, and a 120 MWh battery-storage project in Bihar. The company has also secured a new contract from SJVN Limited to build a 100 MW solar project paired with a 200 MWh battery-storage system. Together, these projects reflect Hindustan Power’s commitment to expanding India’s clean-energy footprint.