India’s Energy Policy – Truths and Myths
major states, meaning that a focused, well-executed programme in a few areas of India could have a major impact.
Artificial Management of Water Aquifers The third option is the artificial management of water aquifers. Over the last four decades Indian farmers have moved away from gravity-flow surface reservoir and canal-based irrigation to atomised, dug well-pump systems. In response to the changing supply–demand dynamic of agricultural products, farmers have looked to increased intensity and crop diversity.14
This requires frequent, year-round irrigation. Groundwater wells afford farmers the ability to have continuous water access and groundwater systems are a better insurance against droughts compared with surface-water based irrigation.
While this shift has brought prosperity to large numbers of farmers, it has also dramatically increased electricity and diesel consumption for pumping water. About 15% of total electricity generated and 5% of diesel used in India are consumed for pumping groundwater.15
By
providing reliable groundwater supplies, a well-planned aquifer system will serve the politically important farm-base well. It will also drastically reduce electricity and diesel consumption, thereby reducing the concomitant GHG emissions. There are other ‘win–win’ options, such as household solar lighting systems, improved building codes and better road networks, to name just a few.16
Energy Technologies, Technological Change and International Support
The structural reforms and low-hanging opportunities described above will be necessary to secure India’s energy future, but they will not be sufficient. Advanced technologies will also be needed, both on the supply and demand sides of the energy equation. On the supply side, India, like other developing countries, needs advanced power-generation technologies. In the short term the need is greatest in coal-based-power generation. While the best coal plants in the world now approach 50% efficiency, India has barely started to install supercritical coal units, with an efficiency of about 38%.17
However
these units are a lot more expensive than the inefficient subcritical units that India knows how to build and India is years away from developing the technology cost-effectively at home. The availability of affordable technology is a huge roadblock in this case.
Advanced solar technologies are another example of where India needs help. Demand-side management must be a part of any strategy for India’s energy future. With the help of developed countries, smart grid
1.
Rai V, Adapting to Shifting Government Priorities: An Assessment of the Performance and Strategy of India’s ONGC. PESD Working Paper #91, Stanford University. April 2010.
2. Fineren D, LNG Only Option for Indian Gas Supply, 24 June 2010. Available at:
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia- 49609520100624.
3. Report of the Expert Committee, Integrated Energy Policy, Government of India Planning Commission, April 2006. Available at:
http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/ genrep/rep_intengy.pdf.
4. Petroleum Exploration and Production Activities, India 2007–2008. Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Government of India, 2008.
5. 6.
Deshmukh R, Gambhir A, Sant G, Need to Realign India’s National Solar Mission, Prayas Energy Group, March 2010.
Carl J, Rai V, Victor DG, Energy and India’s Foreign Policy, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development Working
Paper #75, May 2008. 7. United Nations Statistics Division, Millennium Development
Goals indicators: Carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), thousand metric tons of CO2. Available at:
http://unstats.un.org/ unsd/mdg/
SeriesDetail.aspx?srid=749
8. Integrated Energy Policy, Report of the Expert Committee, Planning Commission, Government of India, April 2006.
9.
Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable Development, Background Paper, for Workshop on Climate Change and Sustainable Development, TERI, April 2007.
10. National Action Plan on Climate Change, Government of India. Available at:
http://pmindia.nic.in/climate_change.htm.
11. Rai V, Victor DG, Climate change and the energy challenge: a pragmatic approach for India, Economic and Political Weekly, 2009;44(31)78–85.
12. The Working of State Electricity Boards & Electricity Departments, Planning Commission, Government of India,
MODERN ENERGY REVIEW – VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2
and smart meter demonstration projects in India can help catalyse a new era of energy use in the country.
In the long term, India recognises the importance of a robust national system of innovation that closely integrates and co-ordinates basic research and development (R&D) expenditure (mostly by the government) with commercial R&D through favourable policies to position these technologies in the marketplace. In the past, except in matters related to national defence (aerospace, military and nuclear power), such vision and co-ordination has been lacking. The system of innovation has not kept pace with global advances in science and technology. In an effort to resurrect indigenous technological innovation in energy, the government is establishing national centres of innovation in different energy fields across the country. However, as with other policies, success is not guaranteed merely through spending. It remains to be seen whether India can effect a bottom-up revamp of its innovation system anytime soon.
Looking to the Future
India’s energy challenges are formidable and its energy future is uncertain. A major aspect of the Indian energy system is that the challenges are as much institutional and societal as technological. With its reactive policy-making, India has been slow to rise to the challenges; wherever action has been forthcoming, policy implementation and impact has suffered due to political and institutional problems.
Getting the basic structure right – institutional, regulatory and market – is a prerequisite before technology can make a material difference to India’s energy problems. Indeed, much of India’s present focus is on fixing the structure of its energy industry. Slowly, though, some positive signs are beginning to emerge, including:
• • •
•
increased completion and market-orientated policies; renewed focus on R&D and innovation;
increasing separation of regulation from policy-making and operations; and
promising efficiency and conservation programmes.
These are all steps in the right direction. Along the way, developed countries have a tremendous opportunity to support India in securing its energy future while keeping its emissions low. Bilateral projects and collaboration on R&D, demonstration projects and institutional design at all levels–neighbourhood, district, state and national–can go a long way towards helping India follow a sustainable path to economic prosperity. n
Available at:
http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/ genrep/seb/ar_seb02.pdf.
13. Ergeneman A, Dissemination of Improved Cookstoves in Rural Areas of the Developing World, A Study Conducted for the Eritrea Energy Research and Training Center (ERTC), 2003.
14. Shah T, Climate Change and Groundwater: India’s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation, Environmental Research Letters, 4, p0350005+13. August 2009.
15. Shah T, Climate change and groundwater: India’s opportunities for mitigation and adaptation, Environmental Research Letters, 2009;4:0350005.
16. Kapur D, Khosla R, Mehta PB, Climate change: India’s options, Economic and Political Weekly, 2009;44(31):34–42.
17. Gupta P, Super Critical Technology in NTPC India–A brief overview, presented at the Cleaner Coal Workshop, Ha Long City, Vietnam. Available at:
http://www.egcfe.ewg.apec.org/ publications/proceedings/CleanerCoal/HaLong_2008/
index.html.
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