The energy sector in India is impacted by certain key market trends, including unprecedented growth of renewable energy sources and advent of new technologies like electric vehicles and rooftop photovoltaic. These trends create uncertainty in the sector and require regulatory and policy changes to accommodate the increasing penetration of renewables into the grid. In this regard, CSTEP has identified two main challenges: smooth transition of state utilities to renewable energy and development of robust operational processes for long-term sustainability of distribution companies. Our work aims to explore the potential of states to meet renewable energy targets and strategise with government bodies for policy implementation at both state and national levels.
Realising Net-Zero 2070
Post the NDC commitments under the Paris Agreement in 2015, India has been promoting RE, but the increase in non-fossil-fuel-based electricity generation between 2015 and 2020 has been only 3.2%.
Financially Sound Utilities Are Imperative for Universal Access to Affordable and Clean Energy
Energy is central to almost every challenge we face today — security, climate change, food production, or job creation. Access to electricity brings concrete health benefits, besides an evident improvement in wellbeing. For the emerging economies in the Global South, universal access to energy can result in improvement in various areas. Among them are education, health, and productivity.
Sunny Side: Floating and Canal-top Photovoltaic Technologies Key To Achieve Solar Target
Over the last few years, the use of solar energy has increased considerably in India. While the overall installed solar capacity has increased by 17 times in the last seven years and stood at 47.7 GW as of October 2021, its share in the energy mix is just about 12 per cent, according to Central Energy Authority (CEA) data. This share is likely to increase in the future, considering the steady efforts from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) towards promoting clean energy technologies.
Strengthened Grids: A Case of Electric Vehicles in Bengaluru
India, the world’s third-largest GHGs emitter, has its transport sector contributing 10% of total national GHG emissions, with road transportation contributing about 87% of the sector’s total emissions. The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is one way to bring down emissions. While the Indian Government has issued various policy measures, successful EV uptake lies in policy implementation at the State level.
On-ground Revamp Can Make the New DISCOM Scheme Work
In yet another attempt to rescue the power distribution sector, the central government launched a new “reforms-based result-linked” scheme in this year’s Union Budget.
Pumped Hydro: Pushing the Needle Forward on Clean Energy
India’s power sector has been witnessing a large share of renewable energy (RE) being integrated into the grid. This is expected to grow at a high pace in the future as well. With increasing RE share, storage, especially pumped-hydro energy storage (PHES), plays a key role in dispatching the energy from RE resources, peak load shaving, frequency regulation, voltage support, providing round-the-clock support, and balancing the grid, among others.
How Thermal Generating Companies Can Stay in Power
India, which is the second-largest coal producer and both the third-largest producer and consumer of electricity in the world, has committed to an RE-dominant future with an ambitious target of 450 GW of RE capacity by 2030. With the global push for clean energy and falling RE costs, there is no backing away from this goal now. Given this, what is the contribution that state generating companies (GENCOs), mainly operating thermal capacity, can make for this transition to be successful?