Finally, we heard what we anticipated for so long; the planet Earth has entered a phase of Global Boiling.
Climate change remained neglected for long and the current measures continue to appear gloomy for the humanity to survive. Evident from the wildfires and floods, there seems to be no compelling reason to continue with the ways of the forefathers and even our very own.
Experts worldwide suggest cutting down the emission of greenhouse gases by renouncing fossil fuel based energy sources and adopting renewables in perpetuity, avoid wastage, products with greater emissions and curb pollution.
Their suggested solutions vary but all of them conform to one idea central to the problem: No solution is perfect and easy to adopt.
Renewable Energy targets and the upcoming reality they bear:
A recent research undertaken by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US has pointed out how the development of clean energy forms and their deployment has outpaced the development of transmission methods. This has indeed kick-started a new debate.
Renewable capacity addition does not mean that the newly added energy gets better utilized.
A simple problem like grid congestion that is another name for a condition when the transmission capabilities become saturated and prevent any further flow exceeding the heat, voltage, and stability limits which ensures safety.
This is bad because this form of contusion stops the better-priced solar and wind energy from being fully utilized and lead to their underutilization, bring down its market value.
It is one of the reasons to keep India’s electricity generation from greener sources fairly low.
The research conducted has also tried to establish a possible link between grid congestion and battery performance.
For example, hybrid power plants that integrate solar or wind energy with storage facilities have been found to reduce congestion only depending on the technology, plant configuration and operation.
It, therefore, does not come as a surprise that between 2016 to 2022, renewable energy contribution in India’s total power generation could increase by 6.5 percentage points only, meanwhile the renewables total capacity addition increased by nearly doubles percentage of 13.6.
This gap is something to be sought after as this incapacity of the Indian power system to house the increasing share of renewable energy is bound to impact the ongoing energy transition.
If the country plans to increase the percentage of renewable generation and its intended share in the electricity more. It is to note that current share of fossil fuels in the electricity generation stands strong and not seemingly hurt by the Renewable favoring policies.
The challenges in seizure of the Transmission Grid by Renewables:
India has been stated to be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and in a near future, there will be need of more air conditioners, more energy. We cannot go back to the world of emissions anyways.
Wind and solar outputs are expected to become variable by all means as weather patterns struggle to stay expected in the next decade.
This comes along with a greater fluctuation in demands by a rapidly growing nation.
Operational flexibility in the Indian power system will become indispensable and many states (if not all) may have to redefine the way their power systems have been functioning all along.
Secondly, power storage infrastructure will be required as these grids widen. Instant hauling of the generation process cannot always be achieved easily and this requires a way of utilization of power for lean periods in future and also energy does not get underutilized.
Thirdly, the coal-backed power plants have sustained so far but certain cases of decommissioning have surfaced wherein these material assets remain neglected.
A regulatory intervention becomes necessary here to provide appropriate compensation, a way of utilization and if needed, remuneration for fossil-free retrofits.
All this cannot be done unless a more managed power system transformation occurs in India, especially on the demand side that needs to be rather participatory.
For instance, agriculture’s share in electricity demand such as water pumping, is huge and requires restructuring at all levels.
The agricultural sector consumes about 22 percent of total electricity in the country and hence, remains a challenge to efficient consumption of power.
The good news is that the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts an active participation in demand management including from the agricultural sector, by 2030.
Effective demand management can increase the cost effectiveness of renewable technology and provide security to fast-diminishing water security.
A solution to our current concerns dares to address differing problems.
Similarly, rooftop solar in India remain underutilized and is now witnessing a mini-revolution. This can be changed with the gross metering method or other advanced metering options composing of Time-of -Use (ToU) or Time-of-Day (ToD).
The IEA Renewables Integration in India report published in July 2021 highlights on the same.
Another report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has specifically suggested to accelerate the integration of more renewable energy in the power system in case India wants to meet climate goals.
“While India has been adding renewable energy capacity at a fast pace to meet its emissions intensity reduction target for 2030, the country needs to ramp up the share of clean energy in its power system”.
“Integrating more renewable energy in the power system is crucial for India to meet climate goals”, the report exerts.
In the report, various additional measures have been proposed.
India is only looking forward when it comes to renewable energy utilization, why fall back unsuccessfully?
The Government of India has raised its own targets for Net zero conditions. All it needs is calculated advancement of the data, tools, methods, investments and whatever it takes to stand as a Climate leader India is.