Assessing Climate Risks to India’s Power Sector: A District-Level and Asset-Level Methodology for Climate-Resilient Power Systems

The report details a framework for assessing climate risks to India's power sector, distinguishing between chronic stresses (e.g., temperature, drought) and acute extremes (e.g., floods, cyclones). It introduces the Asset-Specific Climate Risk Factor (ACRF) for spatial screening and Expected Annual Impact (EAI)—measured as Expected Annual Loss (EAL) for generation and Energy Not Served (ENS) for networks—to quantify operational disruptions in MWh. The methodology includes a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework to evaluate the economic viability of resilience measures by comparing investment costs against avoided energy losses and repair expenditures.

• The methodology employs a 'hazard–exposure–vulnerability' construct to generate two primary outputs: the Asset-Specific Climate Risk Factor (ACRF), a dimensionless index for spatial risk mapping, and the Expected Annual Impact (EAI), which quantifies energy losses in MWh per year.
• Climate hazards are categorized into chronic and acute pathways based on their physical impact mechanisms. Chronic hazards, including temperature, rainfall, wind speed, and drought-induced water stress, cause gradual performance degradation or operational constraints. Acute hazards, such as floods, cyclones, and landslides, cause sudden physical failures and forced outages.
• Asset exposure is defined differently across the power sector: generation assets are mapped to a single district based on rated installed capacity; transmission assets are distributed across districts based on line length; and distribution assets are mapped to a single district based on average load served.
• The framework quantifies operational impacts through Expected Annual Loss (EAL) for generation assets and Energy Not Served (ENS) for transmission and distribution assets. ENS incorporates a redundancy/load-transfer factor to account for the grid's ability to reroute power, preventing the overestimation of impacts in meshed networks.
• A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) framework is provided to evaluate resilience measures, such as flood protection walls or equipment hardening. It compares the present value of lifecycle costs (CAPEX and O&M) against the discounted stream of avoided energy losses and avoided direct repair and replacement expenditures.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2026). Assessing Climate Risks to India’s Power Sector: A District-Level and Asset-Level Methodology for Climate-Resilient Power Systems. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Annexure-Assessing-Climate-Risks-to-Indias-Power-Sector.pdf

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Assessing Climate Risks to India’s Power Sector: A District-Level and Asset-Level Methodology for Climate-Resilient Power Systems. 2026. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Annexure-Assessing-Climate-Risks-to-Indias-Power-Sector.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Assessing Climate Risks to India’s Power Sector: A District-Level and Asset-Level Methodology for Climate-Resilient Power Systems |date=May 2026 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Annexure-Assessing-Climate-Risks-to-Indias-Power-Sector.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2026assessing, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Assessing Climate Risks to India’s Power Sector: A District-Level and Asset-Level Methodology for Climate-Resilient Power Systems}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2026}, month = may, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Annexure-Assessing-Climate-Risks-to-Indias-Power-Sector.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }