By FY22, 50% of India’s electricity will come from non-fossil fuels: Power secretary A K Bhalla
He added that the country has 200 gigawatt of coal-based plants today and in the years to come, it would come down gradually and that coal would continue to be a part of the energy mix
New Delhi: About 50 per cent of India’s installed electricity capacity by financial year 2021-22 would be from non-fossil fuels, power secretary A K Bhalla said today.
“As far as the electricity sector is concerned, one commitment at COP21 was that 40 per cent of our installed capacity will be from non-fossil fuels, we have reached the 35-per-cent mark in financial year 2018. By financial year 2022, it will be 50 per cent in terms of our installed capacity from non-fossil fuels,” said Bhalla at the 12th India Energy Summit.
India had made a commitment to achieve 40 per cent of total energy demand from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030 at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21).
He said that the government would achieve its target of 100 per cent household electrification by December 2018. About 10 million households were yet to be electrified, he added.
Power secretary said that electricity from coal would continue to be a crucial source of power. Coal is important for balancing of power as electricity from renewable sources is not available all the time.
“We need to replace some of the most inefficient capacities and when we bring in more renewables in the system we need some sort of balancing. It should ideally come from clean source of hydro but percentage of growth in hydro is not as much as in solar and wind. Gas off course is relatively a cleaner fuel but availability within the country is an issue,” the power secretary said.
He added that the country has 200 gigawatt of coal-based plants today and in the years to come it would come down gradually.
Bhalla said, “We have plans to bring another 2,500 megawatt of medium-term power purchase agreement auction. No timeline is decided.”
He added that the empowered committee is in discussion to bring relief for the stranded gas-based power plants.
Source: energy.economictimes.indiatimes
