Is India Prepared for the Power Distribution System of the Future: The energy sector is on the brink of a complete overhaul, and organizations all over the world need to make sure that they are taking the appropriate steps to practice efficient energy management.
This is especially true in India since a country with the second-highest population in the world would require sustainable and reliable power management measures for obvious reasons.
However, this is easier said than done – trying to manage energy in a manner that will satisfy the need of 132 crore people is a humongous task and will require the collective efforts of companies across the entire energy and power industry to achieve this lofty goal. After all, at the end of the day, energy is a commodity, and performing commodity risk management is essential for any company.
Whether India will be able to play the power management system relies heavily on two factors, which need to be addressed first and foremost:
- Sustainability
It’s a sad truth, but the age-old system of generating energy is leading to a situation where these resources are quickly becoming scarce. This is a reality that no one wants to face, and for a good reason – the needs of many outweigh the need of the few, and the future generation shouldn’t pay the price for the mistakes of its predecessors.
This is the exact thought process that drove the idea of sustainable energy – judiciously utilizing resources so that the needs of the future generation can be met without any debilitating problems.
India has already taken many steps to ensure that the concept of sustainability is pushed in distribution management system. The country has already produced 100,000 GWh of renewable energy in FY 2017-18, which is more than Israel and Hong Kong combined. When it comes to wind energy, India is already set to meet its requirement of 60 GW wind capacity well before the 2022 deadline.
However, while India might be taking the steps required to perform this active energy management, there are still many hurdles we need to overcome. Benjamin Sporton of the World Coal Association has stated that there is no energy trajectory for India that involves coal, which is somewhat alarming. An estimated budget of $125 million is also required to meet India’s sustainable energy goals – a massive number, but certainly doable.
- Reliability
While India’s sustainable power management might be going at a steady pace, the same can’t be said for the reliability of this energy provision. In a population of 1.3 billion people, 300 million people don’t even have access to electricity.
For the people who do have access to electricity, the situation isn’t exactly all that ideal. Blackouts and power outages happen on a regular basis, and this situation will only be compounded over the summer. The fact that the price of electricity will continue to rise over time does not bode well for the future of energy management, and certain measures need to be taken so that reliable energy management can be practised.
The pointers mentioned above make it clear that, while India is not prepared to tackle the power management game head-on, the country is still on the right track when it comes to securing the sustainable and reliable future of the energy sector. The utilization of proper power distribution system will definitely be a massive help in this regard.
