India’s energy demand to grow at 3 percent P.A. by 2040

Hardeep S Puri, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Housing & Urban Affairs, spoke at a session titled ‘Powering Amrit Kaal Through Energy Transition’ last evening at the CII Annual Session 2023, which had the theme ‘Future Frontiers: Competitiveness, Technology, Sustainability, and Internationalisation’. Stated that India has successfully been able to modulate the effective price to the consumer, thus insulating the common man from price rises and volatility in international prices.

Although nations in our region and possibly even developed nations may have faced energy rationing, pump dry-outs, and skyrocketing fuel costs, among other issues, India’s approach was successful in ensuring a steady supply of fuel. The world’s lowest rate of price inflation has resulted from this.

As India continues on its rapid growth trajectory towards a USD 5-trillion and later a USD 10-trillion economy, there is a need to provide reliable, secure, and affordable energy supplies. India’s dedication to energy security, ease of doing business, and energy transition is evident in the country’s energy sector reforms in general and the oil and gas sector in particular.

A number of crucial changes to gas pricing were recently agreed upon by the Cabinet as part of a significant policy change that gave the gas industry an additional boost. Without these choices, gas prices would not have been competitive with alternative fuels and would have prevented the growth of the economy based on petrol. Priority consumers’ petrol prices would have risen by almost 10 percent in the ensuing six months and kept rising in the years following. While the price of CNG has decreased by 6-7 percent, the average cost of PNG has already decreased by roughly 10 percent in India.

These changes are a part of India’s ambitious energy transition programme, which will result in the country reaching “net carbon zero” by 2070. The Minister highlighted that we must “survive the present” and maintain the accessibility and affordability of energy in order for the transition to be enduring and stable in the future.

In contrast to the global average of 1 percent, India’s energy demand is anticipated to increase by around 3 percent annually through 2040. Over 10 percent of the rise in the world’s energy demand since 2000 can be attributed to India. Since 2000, India’s per-capita energy demand has increased by more than 60 percent. Due to our rapidly expanding economy and demographic dividend, India will contribute 25 percent of the global energy increase between 2020 and 2040. India has enacted the Green Hydrogen Policy with a production target of 5 million tonnes of green Hydrogen by 2030, with Hardeep Puri expressing confidence that India will not only meet but exceed this target. He also mentioned that India had recently launched a ‘Global Alliance on Biofuels’, along with the USA and Brazil, during India’s Presidency of the G20.