Capacity sans sustainability

By Shankar Sharma
31 Aug 2010

In view of the social, economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuels, and their limited availability, India needs a paradigm shift in its approach towards the energy sector. A detailed critique of Integrated Energy Policy is put up here for objective analysis by concerned experts and stakeholders.

Energy is a crucial sector of our economy, so much so that per capita availability of energy is considered as an indicator of economic prosperity. However, the social, economic and environmental impacts of demand/supply of energy are so huge that only a holistic and objective consideration of all the related issues will enable a sustainable and effective national policy. In this context the recommendations of Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) have been analysed in this critique.

While there are many good recommendations in IEP, the review indicates that IEP has recommended large growth in the installed/production capacity of various energy sources by 2031-32 ignoring the huge deleterious impacts of such a growth on our society. Long term impacts of such growth on environment and bio-diversity have not even been discussed. In this context alone the IEP recommendations have failed in the expectations of a welfare society.

In view of the social, economic and environmental impacts of fossil fuels, and their limited availability, country is in urgent need of a paradigm shift in the way it views the energy sector. The escalating demand for energy must be objectively considered in the correct context of greater needs of the society such as clean air, water and healthy food, and the inescapable limits of the nature in supporting such a demand. In this regard it becomes obvious that the conservation and enhancement of our environment and bio-diversity must not be compromised in order to meet the unabated demand for energy.

Within the energy sector, there is a critical need to: clearly differentiate our needs from wants/luxuries; recognize the fact that fossil fuels are fast running out; focus on improving the energy efficiency to international best practices levels; effectively deploy all the alternatives available to meet the legitimate demand; and harness the renewable energy sources to the optimum extent. Suitable tariff policies, including a feed-in-tariff for renewable energy sources, should be implemented to heavily discourage wastage of a precious national resource such as electricity, and to encourage very high efficiency in its usage and local production.

We should acknowledge that the energy security will not be feasible as long as we fail to manage the effective demand, and as long as we rely heavily on external resources. Inequitable supply of limited energy amongst various sections of our society, which is prevailing at present, must be set right as a priority. In view of the Global Warming impacts on our densely populated society the usage of fossil fuels should be minimised in the short run and eliminated in the long run.

Subsidized electricity by a State Government to any category of consumers should be only by advance payment of one year’s subsidy amount. A comprehensive policy to encourage widespread usage of pubic transport systems should be implemented; usage of private vehicles should be discouraged keeping in view the huge cost of fuel imports and the pollution impacts; old and inefficient vehicles should be eliminated on a rigid time scale.

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