India Still Nowhere Near to Its Quality Energy Requirements

The energy demands for India, which is home to more than 130 crore people, are on the continuous rise for clean and green energy. Thus, in order to meet the energy needs of the country, Government of India announced various schemes to ensure that the entire country including rural parts are connected to the electricity grid. The schemes, though well intended, were unable to reach their expected potentials, revealing that the process is not that simple, and in the last mile connectivity, connecting homes to the local transmission sources turns out to be a difficult task, if not altogether impossible, on account of various bottlenecks, courtesy numerous levels of compliances.

 

It ought to be remembered that it is not just the power to be supplied, but great care has to be taken to ensure that quality of power remains top-notch. The primary determinants of power quality are frequency of voltage spikes or interruptions. Poor quality of power not only affects the quality of life and comfort, but on a larger and considerable scale results in loss of industrial and commercial productivity. The large gap between demand and supply of power is the root cause of the subtly worsening power quality across India. Despite various efforts by successive governments, the shortage of power supply is still major cause of concern across India.

 

Adding to the concerns is the grim-looking financial stability of many Discoms who regardless have to supply power to rural areas, often compromising on the quality to mitigate their own losses, and this further exposes the bleak nature of the situation. Owing to their financial instabilities, several Discoms are many times left embarrassed being unable to purchase power to meet their minimum consumer demands, let alone making any meaningful investment in alternate sources of energy such as renewables. The resultant effects are naturally borne by the ultimate consumers who do not get good quality of power, and on other hand the power producers who are unable to sell power in the market, thereby staring at accumulating major losses, and in some cases also a potential default under their facility agreements.

 

The days when conventional sources of energy had the highest demand are long forgotten and much behind us. With wind and solar energy sources becoming cheaper, the continuous push towards choosing renewable source of energy is on a steep rise in the country. The world today, places much more reliance and importance on sustainable development, and now more and more countries are bringing in legislations that promote and support clean and green energy sources.

 

In India, energy sector is presently playing a critical and vital role in both assembling sustainable development objectives and plummeting environmental externalities. Per the International Energy Agency (IEA) India Energy Review 2020, the energy and emission intensities of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) have decreased by more than 20% over the past decade. Based on current statistics, India’s demand for energy is set to double by 2040, and its electricity demand may even triple. 

 

India has presently one of the largest unified power grids in the world that operates in a single frequency. However, the question that still haunts India remains the same – whether the energy requirements of a country as large as India are being adequately met? Though India has earned for itself praises and recognition from the IEA for its untiring endeavours for market liberalisation and necessary energy reforms, and thanks to the efforts of successive governments for ensuring and delivering complete access to electricity to India’s population since the year 2000, the quality of supply, however, still remains inadequate and questionable. If the extant policy framework is further strengthened and energy efficiency mechanisms are put in place, then as per the reports, by 2020, India can save around USD 190 billion per year against energy imports and can also avoid electricity generation of 875 terawatt hours per year. The Government is no doubt implementing reforms towards a secure, affordable and sustainable energy system to provide impetus for robust economic growth, but the need of the hour is major shift towards the renewable sector with much more liberalized policies and less of bureaucracy and stiff compliances.  

 

India’s achievements in the last decade in accelerating renewable capacity addition have been remarkable but still are not enough to satisfy the needs of most of its population. Liberal policies and easy governmental compliances for creating a friendly environment that attracts investments in renewable energy sector is the need of the hour. Introduction of national competitive auctions for wind and solar is a welcome step in the right direction, but in order to further ensure advancement in the evolution of renewables, auction design, grid connections and the financial health of the power distribution companies are critical foundations for reform. 

 

 

Today, renewables contribute a significant share to the electricity mix which is vital for efficient capacity utilisation. In the past, while hydropower used to be the dominant source of renewable electricity in India, more and more impetus is now being given to more futuristic renewable energy sources. With technology to boot, reports suggest that solar power has started to grow in the last few years (2007-16) by 64% per year on average, much ahead of wind energy@14%. Given that the growth in India’s economy has resulted in more energy consumption, offices across the country adding to this number, solar power is expected to become a dependable and friendlier option for consumers, resultantly reducing India’s dependence on coal. 

 

Development and generation of more solar power means less consumption of fossil fuels and consequently a reduction in carbon emissions. Additionally, wind solar hybrid, although in a nascent stage, is fast becoming the favoured renewable energy option with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) having adopted the National Wind Solar Hybrid Policy in 2018. The policy seeks to promote hybridisation of wind and solar energy. India, albeit, has been leading the world on this front as it has set itself the milestone of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity by the year 2022. This ambitious target is a clear expression of India’s efforts and pledge to take actions and attack global climate changes. 

 

The milestone set above also needs to be viewed under the lens of accelerating India’s transition of energy from fossil fuels and towards renewable sources of energy. Over the past year, India’s energy demand has gradually increased in agriculture, industry, commercial and residential sectors and further progress is on the anvil. Renewable energy sources that self-replenish at much faster rate than its rate of consumption, proves itself to be the answer of all human energy needs in the near future. 

 

In fact, the IEA analysis illustrates that in 2018, India’s investment in solar was greater than in all fossil fuel sources of electricity generation combined. In fact, USD 1.8 billion of investments was done in the renewable energy sector in India during Q1 of 2020, as per the media reports. Energy efficiency is receiving more attention in India than ever with standards and codes being set for the consumption across the sectors. The NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute released ‘Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-Covid-19 Opportunities for India’s Energy and Mobility Sectors’ report, which inter alia seeks for a spur in the enterprises towards building a clean, robust, and minimal cost energy future for India. 

 

Renewable energy has become one of the most important areas of discussions and deliberations as it provides a certain degree of optimism to the world and in all probabilities shall govern the future energy needs of the world by proving to be economically viable. Harnessing the energy available naturally is a challenge but we are arriving at the point of embracing it and making robust decisions for our environment.

 

- Rakshika Kaul Padora, General Manager - Legal, Amp Energy India