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New Delhi: Karnataka expects electricity demand from data centres to grow by another 1,000 MW over the next four-to-five years. Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary of the state’s Energy Department, said so in an exclusive interview with Energy Watch on the sidelines of the Bharat Renewable Energy (BRE) Summit and Expo 2026. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) organised the summit at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi from November 2 to 5.
Gupta put current demand from the sector at 400 to 600 MW. “See, in data centre, we expect that right now the present demand may be of the order of 400 to 600 megawatts, but in the coming few years, maybe 4 or 5 years, we expect another 1,000 megawatts to get added,” he said. Growth could continue beyond that, he added. “And after that, depending on the progress more and more may get added.”
The state plans to meet this demand in three cities. “So we expect that we will add about 500 MW capacity in Bangalore, 200 MW around Mysore, another 200 MW near Mangalore, and that capacity being added would be able to suffice for the immediate expansion in the next 4-5 years,” Gupta said. He said the Energy Department was working with the Industries Department, which will provide land, and with the IT department, which is in close touch with the IT industry. “And hopefully we will be able to respond to the needs of the industry,” he said.
According to a statement from the state’s Energy, Industries and IT ministers, the three parks would have a combined capacity of 1,000 MW. On September 18, the state Cabinet approved the Karnataka Sustainable Data Centre Policy 2026–2031. The policy targets a cumulative data centre IT load of 1 GW by 2031 and has a budget of Rs 1,300.45 crore.
Gupta told Energy Watch that the state had set out a 10-year roadmap for investors at the summit. “In the next 10 years, Karnataka requires almost 48,000 MW of power, renewable energy power,” he said. That would come from “wind, solar, hybrid, micro-hydro, pumped storage, storage, battery storage, and biomass, and number of other initiatives,” he added. When asked whether the 48,000 MW would come only from renewable energy, Gupta confirmed that it would.
The state is not planning to replace its thermal capacity, Gupta said. “See, in India, because we have a fast growth, we are not talking about replacement of one, that is thermal, with renewables. We are talking about developing both but giving more emphasis to renewables.”
Renewables already make up most of the state’s installed capacity, and Gupta expects that share to keep rising. “So right now, almost 70 percent of our installed capacity is in renewables space. We hope and expect in the next 10 years it may go up to 85 percent,” he said. Of all the capacity to be added in that period, he said, “almost 90 percent will come in the renewable energy space.” That would lift the share of renewables actually used on the grid, he said, “from 30 percent... to more than 50 percent in the next 10 years.”
In September, at the Bharat Electricity Indian Utility Week 2026 summit in New Delhi, Gupta had said Karnataka planned to raise its installed power capacity from more than 39 GW to 66 GW by 2030.
On being asked whether adding this much renewable capacity could lead to curtailment and transmission bottlenecks as seen in Rajasthan, the top official said that Karnataka was spreading new capacity across the state. “What has happened is Karnataka is adding renewable power responsibly and in a manner that is distributed across the state. We are not looking at one particular area in which there will be high concentration of power that is generated,” he said.
Gupta contrasted this with states that have built large renewable capacity in one place. “Some other states which have seen concentration of renewable energy at a single location and no consumption in that area are facing problems with transmission and curtailment. We are trying to add renewable energy closer to the point of consumption,” he said. “But if you do it in a concentrated manner far away from the points of consumption, in that case you need to invest very heavily on the transmission lines.”
In Rajasthan, commissioned renewable capacity was about 23 GW in December 2025, while transmission capacity was about 18.9 GW, according to Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) data.
Gupta said Karnataka did not face the same problem. “Karnataka, fortunately, we have no such problem of curtailment or transmission inadequacy,” he said. Both the central and state transmission sectors were expanding the network, he added, and “transmission is getting expanded together with addition of the generation capacity.” He said, “We hope and expect that requirements of all the different economic sectors will be met without any kind of constraint.”
Gupta said the state expects to build 4,000 to 6,000 MW of pumped storage, plus a similar amount of battery storage. “Several of them have been identified, several of them have been studied and approved also. Project work is going on at three locations,” he said. He named Sharavathi, Saundatti and Narihalla, which are in different districts. A fourth project, at Varahi in Udupi district, is being studied. “We are getting the surveys and pre-feasibility established,” he said.
“We expect almost 4,000 to 6,000 MW of pumped storage overall,” Gupta said, “and then an equivalent number of battery storage in the days to come.”
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) tracks the three named projects in its July 2026 status report on pumped storage development. It lists the 2,000 MW Sharavathy project of Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) as under construction, with commissioning expected in May 2032. The 1,600 MW Saundatti project in Belagavi district is also listed as under construction, with commissioning expected in December 2027. The report lists JSW Energy’s 300 MW Narihalla project in Ballari district as under survey and investigation, with commissioning expected in 2029-30.
On being asked about cancellations of Small Hydro Project (SHP) allocations in the state, Gupta said the cancelled allocations had gone to developers who never invested. “Some people have shown intention to invest, they have not invested,” he said. “If they are not invested, we should cancel the earlier allocations made five years back, 10 years back, and reallocate them to the new investors.”
He said the new allocations will come with deadlines. “And with a time limit that, look here, in within 5 years, 10 years, within some reasonable time frame, you must execute the project,” Gupta said. “If you don’t execute, we will again cancel, reallocate to somebody else.”
The state plans to tender more small hydro capacity soon, according to Gupta. “Another, I think, 150 MW we are going to add shortly. A tender is going to be called for that, but I think there will be a plan for another 600 MW or so,” he said.
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