Energy Security: Challenges and Way forward,ऊर्जा सुरक्षा चुनौती और आगे का रास्ता

Energy Security: Challenges and Way forward

Introduction:

India is on its way to becoming a global economic powerhouse, and energy will lie at the heart of this transformation. The stakes could not be higher to bolster economic growth and enhance living conditions for this nation of 1.3 billion people, which uses just 6% of the world’s energy. Unreliable electrical supplies hinder India’s development. Further, India is home to eleven of the world’s twenty most-polluted cities, according to the World Health Organization.

What is energy security?

Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption.

Challenges:

• The energy conundrum is how to provide universal access to affordable and reliable energy on one hand, and the imperative to weaken the linkage between economic growth, energy demand and environmental degradation on the other.
• The imbalances in the energy value chain. There is currently, for example, surplus generating power capacity but approximately 40 per cent of the country still faces power shortages and/or has no access to electricity.
• There are leakages across the transmission and distribution chain. The government is familiar with the problems. But they have difficulty implementing the solutions because of competitive Centre-state politics, status quo-driven vested interests and lack of resources.
• The growing bonhomie between Russia and China and their increasing engagement with the energy sector in the Middle East present India with an opportunity and a threat.
  An opportunity to move into the space vacated by the US.
  Also, the opportunity to resurrect economically compelling projects of mutual interest to all three countries (transnational gas pipelines).
  A threat in that China will use its economic weight to secure oil on preferential, exclusionary terms to the possible detriment of India’s supply relations.

Way ahead:

• Securing fossil fuels along with a focus on “clean” renewables is the need of the hour.
  An integrated planning process that factors in the implications of decisions concerning fossil fuels on renewables and vice versa, and by developing a policy mindset that enables the fulfillment of short-term objectives without compromising longer-term goals.
• The short-term challenge is to correct the imbalances in the energy value chain, to minimise avoidable losses and create a unified energy market.
• The “successful” conclusion of GST offers a direction to solve the transmission and distribution losses. The government could contemplate something similar for the energy sector. A nationwide system brings in a simplified, transparent and national regulatory tariff and policy platform.
• The medium-to-long-term challenge is to redesign and restructure the institutions of energy governance to enable and facilitate holistic energy planning and an integrated energy market.
  As a first step in that direction, the government should consider legislating an “energy responsibility and security act”. This will raise public awareness on the interconnections between the various components of energy and between energy and the rest of the economy.
• Cities are the reasons for surging energy demand and air pollution. The government should devolve the energy administration of cities to an autonomous and constitutionally safeguarded “city energy ombudsman”.
  These ombudsmen should be empowered to tackle issues related to energy efficiency, demand conservation, waste management, urban redesign and transportation and to develop and implement focused, small-scale and distributed solutions.
• India imports more than 80 per cent of its crude oil requirements. The international oil market is, therefore, a matter of strategic and commercial significance.
  India should thus hedge against unexpected volatility.
• China and Russia’s growing involvement in the Middle East means we need to proactively reduce our import dependence on the region.
• Exploration and production is a long-gestation, capital-intensive and high-risk business; India does not have undiscovered reserves of “low-cost, easy oil”.
  The ONGC should broaden its footprint to become a world-class energy company.
  It should contemplate integration with not just the downstream petroleum companies but also the renewables companies.
• The government has set ambitious targets for renewables and electric vehicles.
  It will have to invest in supportive infrastructure, regulations, skills and innovation.
  Niti Aayog must carry out a detailed study on what will be required to shift from the incumbent fossil fuel energy system to a “clean energy” system.

Conclusion:

Energy security is a sine qua non for a nation like India, which its huge population is aspiring to grow at a faster pace. But for this to happen the baove mentioned steps must be taken.