Reducing solar PV curtailment through demand-side management and economic dispatch in Karnataka, India

India has set 2070 as the target year to achieve carbon neutrality, while carbon-intensive fossil fuels are still dominating its energy system. In the next five decades, economically optimized energy transition towards renewables is crucial for India to reduce CO2 emissions in an affordable manner. India has installed a large fleet of solar PV, and thus, maximizing their capacity factors plays an influential role in energy transition. This study examines how the state of Karnataka managed to enhance solar PV capacity factor by two-thirds with substantially reduced curtailment from 2017 to 2019. We built, calibrated, and validated a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model with detailed hourly data to quantify the impacts of two major policy changes, being shifting electricity consumption of irrigation from night-time to daytime (load shift) and dispatching electricity generation units by their merit order (economic dispatch). Our results indicate that these two measures could explain about 20% and 70% of the capacity factor increase, respectively, which is equivalent to reducing the cost of solar electricity by about 40%. India and other countries may further expand these policies for accelerating and optimizing energy transition.

Automated summary

India has set 2070 as the target year for achieving carbon neutrality, but the dominance of carbon-intensive fossil fuels in its energy system remains a challenge. This study examines how the state of Karnataka in India managed to significantly enhance solar PV capacity factor and reduce curtailment by implementing load shift and economic dispatch policies. The results show that these policies contributed to a 20% and 70% increase in the capacity factor, respectively, leading to a 40% reduction in the cost of solar electricity. This research suggests that similar policies can be adopted by India and other countries to further accelerate and optimize the energy transition.