GridPath India long-term (2020-2050) power system planning model data

This repository provides model data for GridPath-India, a capacity expansion model (CEM) implemented in the open-source GridPath platform. GridPath-India represents India’s electricity system with 34 load zones, interstate transmission, and hourly demand. Generation, storage, and transmission investments and operations are optimized across multiple planning periods from 2020 to 2050. This model uses two representative days per month (peak and median demand) at hourly temporal resolution to simulate long-term power system planning and operations.

The model data includes existing, planned, and candidate generation and storage projects, as well as more than 1,300 candidate wind and solar sites, and a compilation of state-level coal captive capacity. Plus, a predefined set of scenarios for transmission and project portfolios, operational characteristics, reliability requirements, and policy targets, efficient load-carrying capability for VRE projects, availability factors, and temporal structures.

Additionally, the repository provides project-level wind and solar capacity factors for multiple technology configurations.

Methods

Capacity Factors

This dataset uses the MapRE framework to characterize candidate sites for variable renewable energy (VRE) development, focusing on solar PV and wind resources. Hourly capacity factor (CF) profiles are generated using a weather-to-VRE modeling approach that integrates MapRE with PySAM and PVWatts.

Solar CFs are derived from the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), while wind CFs use ERA5 reanalysis data, unbiased with high-resolution wind speeds from the Global Wind Atlas. Wind CFs are derated to match historical generation reported by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

CF profiles are generated at hourly resolution (8,760 hours) and reflect technology-specific characteristics and availability factors. Multiple candidate sites per state and technology are included to support resource-aware and economically informed siting decisions.

India-Specific Technology Costs

Solar PV and wind cost projections combine multiple data sources and are adjusted using region-specific factors. Single-axis tracking PV costs are based on 2023 ATB estimates, adjusted using IRENA 2020 auction prices and 2022 ITC data. Fixed-tilt PV costs are derived from U.S. utility-scale cost relationships and adapted for Indian conditions. For rooftop PV, incentivized costs are excluded; the ITC mid estimate is treated as the lower bound and the high estimate as the upper bound.

Onshore wind costs adopt 2020 ATB values initially and follow original 2023 ATB projections from 2030 onward due to inconsistencies across datasets. Offshore wind costs combine 2023 ATB and 2022 ITC estimates, with future trends adjusted using local onshore wind prices in the absence of Indian auction data.

Cost projections for pumped storage hydropower (PSH), batteries, and hydrogen storage integrate multiple sources and regional considerations. PSH costs reflect 2023 ATB, 2022 ITC, and Indian auction data, with power and energy components scaled using U.S. project data. Battery costs combine 2024 ITC Power Storage and 2022 ATB data, adjusted using international auctions and tenders.

Hydrogen costs assume proton exchange membrane electrolysis, storage in tanks or salt caverns, and electricity generation via fuel cells, which are assumed to become viable by 2030–2040. Cost estimates draw from 2024 ITC Green Fuels, NREL, and international studies; salt cavern costs rely on international data due to limited domestic evidence.

GridPath

GridPath is an open-source power system planning platform designed to support long-term capacity expansion, production cost simulation, and resource adequacy analysis. It formulates the electricity system as a linear optimization problem that minimizes total system cost subject to demand, operational, reliability, transmission, and policy constraints. The model represents generation, storage, and transmission assets with technology-specific operational characteristics and allows decisions to be optimized across multiple investment periods. 

By integrating investment and operational decisions within a single framework, GridPath allows consistent evaluation of trade-offs between capacity expansion, system operations, and decarbonization pathways under alternative technology, demand, and policy scenarios.