What happened

The Ministry of Power has said that India currently has 11 pumped storage projects under construction with an aggregate installed capacity of 15,870 MW. The ministry has also said that 6 more projects with an aggregate capacity of 8,140 MW have been concurred or appraised by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and are yet to begin construction.

Pumped storage projects matter because they store surplus electricity during off-peak hours and supply power during peak demand. The Ministry of Power has linked them to long-duration energy storage, frequency regulation, voltage support, black start capability, and higher renewable energy penetration.

Background and earlier position

The MoEF&CC extended forest-area survey provisions to hydel and pumped storage projects on 20 August 2024, and later enhanced the number of boreholes for survey and exploration in forest areas on 10 September 2025. The CEA has also revised the guidelines for formulation and concurrence of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs), reducing the concurrence timeline from 90 days to 50 days for all types of pumped storage projects.

The Government of India notified revised rules on 1 August 2025 raising the capital expenditure limit for hydro generating station schemes to ₹3,000 crore for CEA concurrence. The same notification exempted off-stream closed-loop pumped storage schemes, regardless of capital expenditure, from CEA concurrence, while allowing developers to seek technical guidance from the CEA.

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