India’s energy transition: tackling bottlenecks, seizing opportunities

The article discusses India’s renewable energy goals and circular policies for managing clean tech waste, emphasising national and state-level interventions.

The journey to achieve larger RE NDC targets has been one step forward and two steps back. On the one hand, positive developments have been made, with the government announcing interstate transmission systems for evacuation, grid integration of 13 gigawatts of renewable energy from Ladakh, and central support of approximately 8000 crores. In addition, there has been viability gap funding for 4 GW hours of battery storage.

On the other hand, the recent announcement by the government of no retirement of coal plants until 2030 is a step backwards. This leads to inefficient coal plants with low plant load factors already existing in the system, which was the cause of a lot of power outages last year due to limitations in coal transportation and limited availability.

National-level interventions vs state-level efforts: Achieving decarbonisation across the value chain Rather than retiring coal plants, achieving NDC targets requires other interventions and initiatives. While there have been impressive national-level interventions, efforts must be made at the state level throughout the value chain to decarbonise, enhance power ecosystem readiness, strengthen distribution and transmission infrastructure, and implement innovative policies and programs. According to Saloni Sachdeva Michael, an Energy Analyst at IEEFA, decarbonisation is crucial, involving a shift away from thermal sources towards greening the supply side. She highlighted the tremendous efforts of states like Karnataka and Rajasthan, which have made significant progress in greening their power mixes, with 48 percent and 29 percent renewable energy (RE) shares, respectively. However, these states still have much untapped RE potential, with only 11 percent, 7 percent, and 10 percent of them RE potential utilised by Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, respectively. Sachdeva suggests that this potential can be further harnessed through technology, RE and wind projects, storage projects, hybrid projects, offshore wind, and hydrogen technologies. Greenmarket mechanisms such as G-Dam and G-Tam must be used to create RE-rich resources as export hubs for other states.

Greenmarket participation: Addressing bottlenecks at the state level
A recent study conducted to understand green market participation at the state level showed that it could have been more promising. Karnataka had the highest performance in green market participation, but other states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, where we expected better performance, could have performed better. This bottleneck at the state level needs to be addressed, and we should encourage states to participate in these mechanisms.

Banking power is crucial, especially for wind, and some states have announced progressive banking policies and settlement periods while others have not. States need to develop better banking provisions and annual settlement periods, which will incentivise developers at the state level to develop more projects. On the transmission side, storage side, and grid integration, we need to focus more on hybrid projects, whether wind-solar hybrids or renewables coupled with energy storage and build the SDU and CPU capacities at the state level.

Harnessing technology, storage and green market mechanisms
Storage should be technology-agnostic, and we should focus on large grid storage and pumped hydro behind the metre, depending on the necessity. It will be crucial for load management flexibility options, grid stability, meeting peak demand, and also meeting the diagonal fluctuations brought in with more RE penetration. On the policy side, one-time use tariffs are needed as they are a great intervention and tool for demandside management and DSM and must be introduced more at the state level.

There has been a global discussion about moving from energy to material security, focusing on supply chain transparency for critical raw materials, their geographic location, and availability diversity. To further enhance this conversation, states must develop more circular policies at the state level.

Increasing challenges of cleantech waste management
Currently, e-waste is being handled, but going forward, there will be an increase in battery, tech, and solar waste at both state and national levels. One study showed that Haryana and Gujarat are the best-performing states in handling e-waste and battery waste, having recycling plants, registered recyclers, distributors, and refurbishers. However, this needs further enhanced at the state level, as cleantech waste will increase tremendously in the next ten years.

Strengthening distribution infrastructure: a case study of Uttar Pradesh
Regarding the distribution infrastructure, I would like to highlight an excellent initiative from Uttar Pradesh. In the last few months, we have seen considerable investment going into the state. Recently, the state government allocated approximately ₹6,500 crores to renovate its distribution sector. The main agenda was strengthening the distribution infrastructure, surveying the existing overhead lines, and replacing the damaged ones. It is crucial to conduct studies to understand what needs to be fixed in the present grid infrastructure and then remove those obstacles by providing financing. Additionally, understanding DISCOM’s health is essential. DISCOMs are often considered the weakest link in the sector, and all inefficiencies are attributed to them. However, we have seen that many DISCOMs are trying to improve their efficiency. According to the Practise Portal, the amount of money paid by the DISCOMs to the RE generator and other generators has decreased based on the MOP and MNRE data. Therefore, these incentives at the DISCOM level are fading, which needs to be highlighted and given the right credit to support and enhance their financial health.

Considerable progress and impact have been made at the state level, but there needs to be a gap between the magnitude of the challenge and the speed of action being taken at the state level. If we can bridge that gap, we can achieve our RE targets more efficiently.