Analysis of System Flexibility for Large-Scale Integration of Renewables

This thesis explores how India’s evolving power system can adapt to the rising share of renewable energy while ensuring grid stability. It highlights the existing regional disparity in flexibility. Using a detailed, granular, bottom-up energy model, it examines the operational trade-offs between cost, emissions, and thermal plant flexibility and the role of policies like carbon pricing. It assesses how low-carbon technologies—such as nuclear and renewables—can help bridge the present gap to a future net-zero power system. The study further evaluates impacts on capacity, costs, and electricity prices, while accounting for uncertainties in demand and technology through sensitivity analysis.