Blog and discussion summary: Is future planning of electricity grid keeping India’s pace of development in mind?

India is poised to close the gap in household electrification in a few years.  What does this portend for electricity growth? As economic growth spreads, will households rapidly grow their demand, especially for energy-intensive devices and appliances, including ACs? Is India simply “x” years behind China, or are there different trajectories that might unfold?  In this talk, Prof. Johannes Urpelainen discusses insights from global and Indian electrification efforts, with a focus on Asian countries.

Brookings India conducted a seminar on Electricity access and demand growth – Insights from global experiences and possibilities for India.

Speaker: Prof. Johannes Urpelainen, Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment, John Hopkins SAIS, Founding Director, Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP)

Speaker’s Bio:

Johannes Urpelainen is the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Professor of Energy, Resources and Environment at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the Founding Director of the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP). He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 2009 and spent the next eight years at Columbia University.

Johannes is the award-winning author of four books and over a hundred refereed articles on environmental politics, energy policy, and global governance. He teaches action-oriented classes on energy and environmental policy to equip the next generation of global leaders with deep knowledge, advanced analytical skills and has a passion for transformational social change. As one of the world’s top energy policy experts, Johannes frequently advises governments, international organizations, and the private sector on energy and environment.

As the Founding Director of ISEP, Johannes is responsible for the vision, strategy, and general management of the initiative. His work under ISEP offers pragmatic but effective approaches to providing the world’s population with affordable and abundant energy at minimal environmental impact. In his spare time, Johannes reads biographies and tries to improve his Hindi.