6 months ago
3
India has doubled down connected cleanable energy, yet the powerfulness you plug into contiguous is dirtier than it was 5 years ago. This is simply a paradox that is astatine the bosom of our vigor transition.
As of June 2025, non-fossil substance sources relationship for astir 50% of India’s full installed capacity. However, India’s grid emanation origin (GEF) — a measurement of the c strength of energy — has accrued from 0.703 tCO₂/MWh successful 2020–21 to 0.727 tCO₂/MWh successful 2023–24, according to the Central Electricity Authority. This is simply a striking reversal: much renewables should mean a cleaner grid. Why is India’s grid getting dirtier instead?
The capacity–generation mismatch
The reply lies successful the favoritism betwixt capableness and generation. While renewables present relationship for a ample stock of installed capacity, they present acold little energy implicit the twelvemonth compared to ember oregon nuclear. Solar and upwind plants typically tally astatine 15-25% capableness utilisation, versus 65-90% for ember and nuclear.
In 2023-24, renewables (including hydro) supplied conscionable 22% of full electricity; the remainder was fossil fuel-powered. The spread betwixt header capableness and existent delivered vigor is widening, and India’s fast-growing request is being met by the astir carbon-intensive root successful the system: coal.
India’s energy request besides peaks erstwhile renewables are slightest available. Solar floods the grid successful the day but fades by evening, conscionable arsenic highest loads from households surge. Fossil substance plants, therefore, enactment arsenic the system’s daze absorbers — dispatched to conscionable night-time and highest request — but they besides fastener successful emissions.
This temporal mismatch highlights the limits of capableness enlargement alone. To genuinely decarbonise, India needs flexibility on with much gigawatts. While Round-the-Clock (RTC) renewable electricity, astatine little than ₹5 per kWh, costs little than caller coal-based powerfulness stations, upscaling is slow. We request policies that alteration much land, transmission lines, and investment.
The relation of vigor efficiency
Energy ratio provides the opportunity. Often called the “first fuel”, it reduces request earlier proviso adjacent needs to beryllium generated. By lowering the evening and night-time peaks, ratio reduces reliance connected ember erstwhile emissions are highest. Scaling up businesslike appliances — fans, aerial conditioners, and motors — and embedding ratio successful buildings and concern processes tin reshape this curve.
The benefits widen beyond reduced ember depletion and enhanced accidental for integrating renewables. Energy ratio enhances flexibility by flattening request peaks and allowing request to align with renewable availability. It besides prevents lock-in by replacing old, inefficient technologies early.
Energy ratio is invisible by plan — diffuse, distributed, and cumulative. Yet, without it, the vigor modulation cannot beryllium achieved. Concrete grounds from the Bureau of Energy Efficiency shows that India saved astir 200 Million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent of last energy, equivalent to astir 1.29 GT of CO2eq, and adjacent to ₹760,000 crore successful savings, from FY2017-18 to FY2022-23.
India is not alone, but its pathway is unique. Countries specified arsenic France, Norway, and Sweden boast grid emanation factors of conscionable 0.1-0.2 tCO₂/MWh, mostly acknowledgment to ample shares of hydro and atomic electricity. India, astatine 0.727, starts from a coal-heavy basal and faces relentless request growth. This makes ratio portion of the halfway strategy, not conscionable an option. Without it, renewables hazard being stranded successful the incorrect hours.
What needs to beryllium done
To unlock the afloat worth of cleanable energy, India indispensable urgently bash the following. First, it indispensable alteration homes and offices to link their batteries into virtual powerfulness plants, helping the grid glide implicit the highest demand. Second, it indispensable accelerate appliance ratio standards. It indispensable determination markets towards 4- and 5-star products and steadily rise benchmarks. Third, it indispensable enactment tiny and mean enterprises to follow businesslike motors, pumps, and processes. Fourth, it indispensable alteration flexible pricing by adopting tariff structures that reward consumers for shifting request to periods of precocious renewable availability. Fifth, it indispensable present scrappage incentives for old, energy-guzzling equipment. Sixth, it indispensable alteration energy organisation companies to procure “electricity services”, specified arsenic greenish cooling, which allows for high-efficiency aerial conditioning powered by RTC cleanable power.
The Central Electricity Authority’s National Electricity Plan projects a autumn successful India’s GEF to 0.548 by 2026-27, and 0.430 by 2031-32. Achieving this requires much than conscionable gathering star and upwind farms. It demands a flexible strategy attack – with ratio astatine the centre.
India has grown its system portion cutting emissions strength by 33% betwixt 2005 and 2019, arsenic noted successful its Fourth Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC. But the rising GEF calls for a balanced approach: accelerate supply-side investments successful renewables, storage, and transmission, portion embedding ratio crossed households, industries, and cities. If India wants to really decarbonise its grid, ratio indispensable go the archetypal substance — and flexibility, not fossil fuels, indispensable powerfulness the future.
Satish Kumar, President and Executive Director, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy; Ajay Mathur, Professor of Practice, IIT Delhi; Former Director General, International Solar Alliance and Bureau of Energy Efficiency
