Abstract
About 70% of India’s current energy mix comprises of coal, and the increase in generation from renewable (RE) sources is affecting the health of the power system. We investigated this effect through the lens of asset utilisation, cost and the social disruption caused by accelerating RE into the Indian Power System. Our review-driven analysis revealed that increasing RE generation is pushing the coal plants to operate in low-loading conditions, causing heightened wear and tear of the plant as they are not suitable for flexible operation. The novel analysis of social disruption due to market parity between RE and coal-based generation presented a holistic view of the political economy of Indian Power System. We found that transition from coal to RE may have extended socio-political ramifications that can potentially disrupt the national economy at an unprecedented scale. Policy implications outlined by our study for the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 include scoping a socio-technical framework which supports just energy transition through better financial support mechanisms for flexible operation of coal plants. Focusing on clean-up over shut-down of coal plants and facilitating investments in battery storage technologies and cross-border electricity trade as RE and conventional fuel reach market parity.
Highlights
The Indian power sector is experiencing transformative changes due to the increase in renewable generation to meet the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) towards the Two-Degree Celsius climate change goals post-2015.1 The challenges associated with this renewable transformation has technological, social and economic implications that need more in-depth attention
We found that the current literature lacked topics dedicated to exploring the social, economic and environmental challenges from accelerated RE generation
Between 2010–11 to 2017–18 the amount collected by the government was INR 86,440 Crores ($USD 12 billion) which was used to support the renewable development through the National Clean Energy and Environment Fund (NCEEF) rather than retrofitting the ageing coal plants.[50]
Summary
The Indian power sector is experiencing transformative changes due to the increase in renewable generation to meet the country’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) towards the Two-Degree Celsius climate change goals post-2015.1 The challenges associated with this renewable transformation has technological, social and economic implications that need more in-depth attention. Grid parity is a situation in a time when the cost of electricity generated from renewable is equal to or lower than the cost of electricity generation from conventional sources.[10] in our conceptualisation of holistic grid parity in the Indian power sector, we factor in the transformational effect of renewables on asset utilisation, cost-competition and employment generation for social change It forms the motivation for this paper, and we investigate the following research question through a systematic and interpretivist review of government policy documents and relevant published literature. To examine the research question, following review objectives are formed, i) explore the challenges and opportunities created by increasing renewable energy generation in the Indian power sector; ii) develop the narrative around the asset, cost and social implications of this changing energy landscape on the coal-dependent economy; and iii) draw critical policy implications for the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 under the pressures of accelerated renewable energy generation. The concluding remarks and the policy implications for EB 2020 are presented in the last section
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