Syllabus: Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc
Current Paradox
- Non-fossil fuel sources: ~50% of India’s total installed capacity (June 2025) showing renewable growth.
- Grid Emission Factor (GEF) increased: from 0.703 tCO₂/MWh (2020-21) to 0.727 tCO₂/MWh (2023-24) paradoxically. More renewables should mean cleaner grid but not so the case in India.
Capacity-Generation Mismatch
- Renewables: large share of installed capacity but deliver far less electricity compared to coal/nuclear.
- Solar/wind: 15-25% capacity utilization; coal/nuclear: 65-90% showing stark operational difference.
- 2023-24: renewables (including hydro) supplied only 22% total electricity; rest fossil fuel-powered coal dominantly.
- Fast-growing demand being met by most carbon-intensive source: coal locking in emissions significantly.
- Temporal Mismatch
- Electricity demand peaks when renewables least available; solar fades by evening as household loads surge.
- Fossil fuel plants act as system’s shock absorbers dispatched for night-time/peak demand but lock emissions.
- Round-the-Clock (RTC) renewable electricity costs less than ₹5/kWh cheaper than new coal; upscaling slow.
Energy Efficiency Role
- “First fuel”: reduces demand before supply needs generation; lowers evening/night-time peaks reducing coal reliance.
- Scaling efficient appliances (fans, ACs, motors), embedding efficiency in buildings/industrial processes reshapes demand curve.
- Benefits: reduced coal consumption, enhanced renewable integration, flattening demand peaks allowing demand-renewable alignment.
Evidence
- Bureau of Energy Efficiency: India saved ~200 Million Tonnes Oil Equivalent (FY2017-18 to FY2022-23).
- Equivalent to ~1.29 GT CO2eq and ₹760,000 crore savings showing significant impact comprehensively.
Global Comparison
- France, Norway, Sweden: GEF 0.1-0.2 tCO₂/MWh thanks to hydro/nuclear; India at 0.727 starting coal-heavy.
- Relentless demand growth makes efficiency core strategy, not option; without it, renewables risk being stranded.
Action Plan
- Immediate Steps
- Enable virtual power plants: connect home/office batteries helping grid manage peak demand effectively.
- Accelerate appliance efficiency standards: move markets towards 4-5 star products, steadily raise benchmarks.
- Support SMEs to adopt efficient motors, pumps, processes reducing industrial energy consumption significantly.
- Policy Measures
- Flexible pricing: tariff structures rewarding consumers for shifting demand to high renewable availability periods.
- Scrappage incentives for old, energy-guzzling equipment replacing inefficient technologies early preventing lock-in.
- Enable DISCOMs to procure “electricity services” like green cooling (high-efficiency AC powered by RTC clean power).
- Projections
- CEA’s National Electricity Plan: projects GEF fall to 0.548 (2026-27), 0.430 (2031-32) requiring flexible approach.
- India cut emissions intensity 33% (2005-2019) per Fourth Biennial Update Report to UNFCCC showing progress.
- Rising GEF calls for balanced approach: accelerate supply-side investments (renewables, storage, transmission) with efficiency embedding.
Conclusion
- Efficiency must become first fuel; flexibility, not fossil fuels, must power future for actual grid decarbonization.