3.7 Overcoming Impediments to Sustained Energy Supply
115
cost or heavily subsidized. Or else they may illegally tap the connection,
a phenomenon that many urban cities have witnessed in the past and the
same continues.
c. Perception: Like other development programs of the government including
construction of roads, houses, toilets, schools, water supply, and panchayat
buildings, rural electrification is reckoned as a welfare activity, and not
a commercial venture. The psyche of subsidy, aid, assistance, and relief
(except disaster related) and the politics of vote encourages the supplier
and consumer to consider rural electricity supply as a social welfare activity
that hampers the recovery of cost.
d. Cost effectiveness: Solar lighting may be an effective solution for household electrification, but not cost-effective now in many cases, especially if
battery back-up is also provided.
e. Duration, quality, and reliability: Providing connection is no end. Indian
village being a socially complex web, issues such as maintenance of transformers, categorization and divide between below poverty line (BPL)
and above poverty line (APL) will be crucial for sustenance of village
electrification program.
The ongoing circumstances give rise to many such as:
1. Can India provide enough electricity per capita to be at par with developed
nations? If yes, how and by which year?
2. Can India provide universal, secure, adequate, and affordable electricity to all
households on 24 × 7 × 365 basis by 2040?
3. If yes, will this energy be clean energy, and will India be able to meet its climate
mitigation commitments?
4. If not, what will the impact on human health, education, and economy?
5. Without a continuous focus on emissions control technologies in the power
sector, industry, and transport, does India face serious risk of a deterioration in
urban and sub-urban air and water quality?
6. More than 800 million Indians still rely on biomass fuel for cooking and 304
million are without access to electricity. Can these figures be brought to naught
and if yes do we have a deadline?
7. Can India fulfil its global commitment of ensuring renewable energy capacity to
175 gigawatts by 2022 as well as ensuring GHG emission reduction by 33–35%
by 2030; If yes, how?
8. In 2017 our per capita electricity consumption was 805 kilowatt-hour/year,
20
that is, less than 3 units of electricity per person per day way below that of USA
at 12,973 kilowatt-hour/year. Can we ever aspire to reach 10,000 kilowatthour/year?
9. Double-digit growth rate has little meaning for a family that struggles for
biomass fuel collection and spends 3–4 hours per day for this purpose only.
20 Source World Bank (2017).
115
cost or heavily subsidized. Or else they may illegally tap the connection,
a phenomenon that many urban cities have witnessed in the past and the
same continues.
c. Perception: Like other development programs of the government including
construction of roads, houses, toilets, schools, water supply, and panchayat
buildings, rural electrification is reckoned as a welfare activity, and not
a commercial venture. The psyche of subsidy, aid, assistance, and relief
(except disaster related) and the politics of vote encourages the supplier
and consumer to consider rural electricity supply as a social welfare activity
that hampers the recovery of cost.
d. Cost effectiveness: Solar lighting may be an effective solution for household electrification, but not cost-effective now in many cases, especially if
battery back-up is also provided.
e. Duration, quality, and reliability: Providing connection is no end. Indian
village being a socially complex web, issues such as maintenance of transformers, categorization and divide between below poverty line (BPL)
and above poverty line (APL) will be crucial for sustenance of village
electrification program.
The ongoing circumstances give rise to many such as:
1. Can India provide enough electricity per capita to be at par with developed
nations? If yes, how and by which year?
2. Can India provide universal, secure, adequate, and affordable electricity to all
households on 24 × 7 × 365 basis by 2040?
3. If yes, will this energy be clean energy, and will India be able to meet its climate
mitigation commitments?
4. If not, what will the impact on human health, education, and economy?
5. Without a continuous focus on emissions control technologies in the power
sector, industry, and transport, does India face serious risk of a deterioration in
urban and sub-urban air and water quality?
6. More than 800 million Indians still rely on biomass fuel for cooking and 304
million are without access to electricity. Can these figures be brought to naught
and if yes do we have a deadline?
7. Can India fulfil its global commitment of ensuring renewable energy capacity to
175 gigawatts by 2022 as well as ensuring GHG emission reduction by 33–35%
by 2030; If yes, how?
8. In 2017 our per capita electricity consumption was 805 kilowatt-hour/year,
20
that is, less than 3 units of electricity per person per day way below that of USA
at 12,973 kilowatt-hour/year. Can we ever aspire to reach 10,000 kilowatthour/year?
9. Double-digit growth rate has little meaning for a family that struggles for
biomass fuel collection and spends 3–4 hours per day for this purpose only.
20 Source World Bank (2017).