Sustainable power system planning for India: Insights from a modelling and simulation perspective

India is a developing country that is facing a major energy challenge. At the heart of this challenge lies the provision of electricity, which is vital for India's sustainable economic development yet faces major uncertainty in the future. A growing body of literature on planning studies has evaluated the future pathways open to India's power generation sector. In particular, several system planning studies have been undertaken at the state level to capture specific local features in energy supply–demand dynamics and to inform policies and initiatives for sustainable growth at the national level. This paper reviews the wider electricity planning literature, considering those states that have so far been studied the most from a modelling perspective (i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal), and scrutinises the various analyses performed by considering their modelling approach and analytical methods, programming techniques, evaluation criteria/objectives (e.g. economic, technical, environmental), planning horizon and time step, energy mix configurations (including the technologies implemented, fuels and storage systems), and key relevant technical and economic modelling features. Progress trends and challenges are presented and crucial gaps in the modelling field are highlighted to contribute to the international debate on the prospects of and challenges for India's future energy system.