NOother issue in recent mem ory has engaged the time and attention of ministers, parlia mentarians,bureaucrats,diplomats,jour nalists, scientists and intellectuals more than the Indo-US nuclear deal. No other business has been lobbied so intensely by the President of the US and the Prime Minister of India. No other deal has brought the government of India to the brink of collapse on more than one occasion.
All this for establishing imported nuclear power generation capacity of about 30,000 MW by 2030 – a costly, unsafe, risk-prone supply side solution incapable of providing energy security and responding to the challenges of global warming and climate change.
A team of international energy experts convened by the US-based UN Foundation to combat global warming and climate change have put together a document titled “Realizing the Potential of Energy Efficiency”. Here are the punch lines of the report:
Demand for global energy serv ices to support economic growth has grown by 50 per cent since 1980 and is expected to grow another 50 per cent by 2030. There are two options available to meet increased demand for energy: supply more energy or improve energy end-use and supply efficiencies. Clearly, both are needed. However, only energy efficiency can generate immediate results with existing technology and proven policies while generating strong financial returns exceeding those from invest ments in conventional energy supply. Simply increasing conventional ener gy supply is not a viable option because continued reliance on the predominant energy source, fossil fuel, exacerbates energy insecurity and raises serious environmental concerns, especially related to climate change.
These recommendations call for the Group of Eight (G8) countries to com mit to a collective goal of doubling the global historic annual rate of energy effi ciency improvement to 2.5 per cent per year from approximately 2012 through 2030.They can gain clear economic and security benefits from improving their own efficiency performance.
In addition,by working effectively with the +5 nations (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa) the G8 countries can spur efficiency improvements in economies that together consume near ly 70 per cent of global primary energy. If India participates in this endeavour, the country could “generate through savings”around 90,000 MW of electric ity by 2030 and also effectively combat global warming and climate change — at less than one-fourth the cost of 30,000 MW of nuclear power!
A 1991 report by the American ouncil for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the National Productivity Council of India outlined the energy saving potential by 2004-05.(See box.) But energy efficiency found no place in the “power sector reforms package” in the mid-1990s for “restructuring and privatizing” India’s power sector! A recent study estimated that the economy has energy-saving potential up to 23 per cent and key sectors like agriculture, industry, transport and domestic and commercial have energy saving potential of 30 per cent, 25 per cent, 20 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. Energy efficiency improvements have three compo nents — enhancing supply efficien cies, demand-side management and end-use efficiency. Enhancing sup ply efficiencies would involve sub stantial improvements in the Plant Load Factor of generating stations, which is quite low by international standards.
Demand-side manage ment involves actions by power util ities, beyond the consumer’s meter, to flatten load curve, reduce system peaking,minimize transmission and distribution losses, improve the power factor and enhance power quality. End-use efficiency is achieved through consumer-driven activities to minimize wastage, reduce energy intensity, enhance performance, improve quality and save cost.
India has an Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and also an Electricity Act, 2003,providing for pol icy and regulatory mechanism to man date and promote energy efficiency.The Bureau of Energy Efficiency was set up under the Ministry of Power to support and provide innovative financing and to function as a nodal agency and facilita tor for energy efficiency activities But, not a fraction of our massive energy effi ciency potential has been tapped
IAS (retd) with a distinguished career of 40 years - worked in Army, Govt, Private, Politics & NGOs.
