Hi bhargav,

India is a country with more than 1.2 billion people accounting for more than 17% of world’s population. It is the seventh largest country in the world with total land area of 3,287,263 sq kilometers. India measures 3214 km from north to south and 2993

km from east to west. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km and coastline of 7,517 km. India has 28 states and 7 union territories. It faces a formidable challenge in providing adequate energy supplies to users at a reasonable cost. It is anticipated that India’s nominal GDP will exceed US $ 2 trillion by March 2012. India’s nominal GDP crossed the US $ 1 trillion mark in 2007-2008 which means that the annual growth rate of nominal GDP during the period is stupendous 18 percent. Thus the energy challenge is of fundamental importance. In the last six decades, India’s energy use has increased 16 times and the installed electricity capacity by 84 times. In 2008, India’s energy use was the fifth highest in the world.

Hi bhargav,

India is a country with more than 1.2 billion people accounting for more than 17% of world’s population. It is the seventh largest country in the world with total land area of 3,287,263 sq kilometers. India measures 3214 km from north to south and 2993

km from east to west. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km and coastline of 7,517 km. India has 28 states and 7 union territories. It faces a formidable challenge in providing adequate energy supplies to users at a reasonable cost. It is anticipated that India’s nominal GDP will exceed US $ 2 trillion by March 2012. India’s nominal GDP crossed the US $ 1 trillion mark in 2007-2008 which means that the annual growth rate of nominal GDP during the period is stupendous 18 percent. Thus the energy challenge is of fundamental importance. In the last six decades, India’s energy use has increased 16 times and the installed electricity capacity by 84 times. In 2008, India’s energy use was the fifth highest in the world.

Nevertheless, India as a country suffers from significant energy poverty and pervasive electricity deficits. In recent years, India’s energy consumption has been increasing at a relatively fast rate due to population growth and economic development, even though the base rate may be somewhat low. With an economy projected to grow at 8-9% per annum, rapid urbanization and improving standards of living for millions of Indian households, the demand is likely to grow significantly. As per the estimates made in the Integrated Energy Policy Report of Planning Commission of India, 2006, if the country is to progress on the path of this sustained GDP growth rate during the next 25 years, it would imply quadrupling of its energy needs over 2003-04 levels with a six-fold increase in the requirement of electricity and a quadrupling in the requirement of crude oil. The supply challenge is of such magnitude that there are reasonable apprehensions that severe shortages may occur.

In recent years availability of power in India has both increased and improved but demand has consistently outstripped supply and substantial energy and peak shortages prevailed in 2009-10. There are also various estimates of 25000 to 35000 MW of power being produced by diesel generation to meet the deficits.

Electricity shortage is not the only problem. Its spread is an equally serious issue. In the past, the selection of an energy resource for electricity generation was dominated by finding the least expensive power generating plant. Although such an approach is

essential, there is growing concern about other aspects of power generation such as social, environmental and technological benefits and consequences of the energy source selection. Figure 1 shows a comparison of different energy sources for life cycle emissions.

It can be observed that coal has the maximum global warming potential followed by Natural Gas and others. Further, it needs to be re-emphasized that for India, like most developing countries, the cost of producing electricity is of paramount concern while planning for the type of plant to be installed and commissioned and more so with abundant supply of coal. However, in the long run if we take the effect of the pollutants

on human health and environment and cost as well as efforts needed to improve or alter the path of degradation, the initial higher cost of using renewable resources for producing energy may not be too big. A high degree of caution is also needed as

emerging economies like India may not at present have financial resources to leapfrog directly to cleaner mechanisms of energy. Since global warming is an international phenomenon and it has no boundaries there is an urgent need for the transfer of technology and development of appropriate financial instruments

from developed the world to nations who are still trying to find their rightful places.

No argument is needed to understand that the world is today facing the problem of global warming due to rapid industrialization and urbanization followed by the

western world. In terms of per capita equity India is 145th in the world with a release of 1.25 t CO2 per annum.

Per capita consumption of energy in India is one of the lowest in the world. India consumed 540 kgoe in 2008 compared to 1803 kgoe by the world, 4560 kgoe by OECD countries, 1600 kgoe by China. India’s energy use efficiency for generating Gross Domestic Product in Purchasing Power Parity is better than many countries

and even compared to the world average. It is expected that with a growth rate of 9% TPES requirement for India in 2021-22 will be around 1192 Mtoe which will further increase to around 2043 Mtoe by the year 2031-32.

The electricity consumption per capita for India is just 566 KWh and is far below most other countries or regions in the world. Even though 85% of villages are considered electrified, around 57% of the rural households and 12% of urban households,

i.e. 84 million households in the country, do not have access to electricity. Electricity consumption in India is expected to rise to around 2280 BkWh by 2021-22 and around 4500 BkWh by 2031-32. Figure 2 shows the Human Development Index (HDI)

which is calculated from the literacy rate, infant mortality rate and GDP plotted against per capita electricity consumption.

Hi chandrasekhar...thank you for valuable information.

According to your discussion, consumers and the economy bear a large burden due to the poor quality of power supply. Industries maintain diesel powered generators and households have invertors with batteries as backup for unscheduled power cuts, low voltages or variable frequency. Equipment is frequently damaged [due to the erratic electricity supply]. Added to these is the cost of idle manpower and loss of production when power supply is interrupted.

Mr Bhargav Ram.....

Ya according to your discussion .... poor quality of power supply is one of the major quandary in India. In my opinion ... Petrole/Oil demand also strongly influencing indian economy. India has total reserves (proved and indicated) of 1201 million metric tonnes of crude oil. Crude oil production during 2009-10 at 33.69 million metric tonnes was 0.55% higher than the 33.51 million metric tonnes produced during 2008-09. The consumption of petroleum products during 2009-10 was 138.196 million metric tonnes (including sales through private imports) which is 3.60% higher than the sales of 133.400 million metric tonnes during 2008-09. Long-term growth in demand of petroleum products depends upon a number of factors such as economic growth (GDP), elasticity of demand for petroleum products with respect to GDP growth, relative price levels of substitute products particularly LNG/CNG, saturation of LPG demand, and the impact of energy conservation measures. The demand for petrol and diesel is dependent on the growth of road infrastructure, the price of oil, the future efficiency of vehicles, the growth of alternate modes of transport and the emergence of substitutes like bio-fuels and/or technologies such as hybrids.

Conference Paper Renewable energy generation in India: Present scenario and f...

http://orbit.dtu.dk/files/4967870/Renewable_PESGM2009-001091.pdf

https://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/energytrends/currentusage/renewable/Renewable-Energy-Potential-for-India.pdf

http://data.conferenceworld.in/ICRISEM4/P356-364.pdf