Electricity Generation in India: Present State, Future Outlook and Policy Implications

Lari Shanlang Tiewsoh,Martin Sivek,Jakub Jirásek

doi:10.3390/en12071361

Lari Shanlang Tiewsoh, Martin Sivek + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en12071361

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Apr 9, 2019
Citations: 42	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Technical University of Ostrava

Abstract

India is one of the fastest developing countries in the world. To sustain this growth, energy and electricity demands will increase. In 2015, of the 1337 TWh produced, 916 TWh were from fossil fuels. We prepared several models of electricity demand from 2015 to 2030, based on publicly available datasets and trends. Models were tested on data from previous years and adjusted accordingly. From several scenarios, we decided to introduce two possibilities, i.e., a scenario using high energy savings in all sectors, and a scenario counting on a high industrial growth not supported by an equal increase of electricity savings. For both cases we prepared models for extreme situations: (1) where coal- and lignite-based power plants are preferred after slow-down of a renewable energy boom, and (2) with high utilization of renewable energy supported by natural gas and nuclear energy. With GDP and population increasing at the same rate as in previous years, the unambiguous result in all scenarios is a 2 to 3-fold increase of the electricity demand by 2030. On the electricity production side, all scenarios stress the role of coal, renewables and nuclear sources. Both energy and climate policies should be prepared for such a development in advance.

Highlights

Electricity infrastructure and production are important for a developing economy like that ofIndia, which with a population of 1.2 billion and an area of 3.29 million km2, is the 7th largest country in the world
Since per capita electricity consumption has a positive relation with GDP per capita (e.g., [4,5,6]), it can be used as a standard for judging the stage of economic development
As high growth of industry shows a large number of electricity requirements from

Summary

Introduction

Electricity infrastructure and production are important for a developing economy like that ofIndia, which with a population of 1.2 billion and an area of 3.29 million km , is the 7th largest country in the world. Electricity infrastructure and production are important for a developing economy like that of. With a GDP of US$ 2.3 trillion in 2015 and an average GDP growth of 7% per year [1], the growth of the electricity sector will be important to sustain the economic output of the country. In 2013, the electricity consumption from all sectors was 824 TWh [3], and with an average growth rate of 9%, and it was estimated to be approximately 980 TWh in 2015. In 2015, per capita electricity consumption was 746 kWh [2]. Since per capita electricity consumption has a positive relation with GDP per capita (e.g., [4,5,6]), it can be used as a standard for judging the stage of economic development. Most countries with a GDP per capita of more than

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