Comprehensive Data Must For India’s Energy Landscape
New Delhi based think-tank Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) released a paper that underlines the importance of accurate and comprehensive energy data for understanding and modelling India’s energy landscape and transition. It makes the point that as India charts its path towards net-zero emissions, robust energy and emissions data will be essential for designing targeted, inclusive, and sustainable interventions that achieve the country’s long-term goals.
Authored by Ganesh Sivamani, an Associate Fellow at CSEP, the paper argues that the road to India’s socio-economic development lies in India understanding its energy requirements. To that end, the paper presents an Energy Balance (EB), an accounting framework that maps the supply and demand of all forms of energy in a country. This database of India’s energy landscape is arrived at by validating and reconstructing the EB and computing emissions data. Mr Sivamani wrote on CSEP website that policymakers could utilize the framework to assess the impacts of policy interventions on energy consumption and emissions in the country’s energy transition efforts.
The study has found that the predominant energy source in India is non-coking coal, used in power generation. It alone accounts for 60% of all combustion emissions. But, in an encouraging trend, the share of renewable energy in the total energy supply has also increased.
The paper presents some policy recommendations like a broader and validated data collection to help states meet their unique energy needs, at the same time contributing to national climate goals.
The paper sees a lot of positives in electrification of machinery as it will help in curbing emissions. To that end, it suggests investments in grid infrastructure and energy storage.
The paper also highlights the huge energy losses incurred during transmission, distribution and transformation. It says that incentives need to be provided to help reduce the losses.
The report is available for free download on CSEP website.
