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The Poor Should Control Carbon Emissions, But the Rich Must Eliminate Them
If the world must achieve zero emissions by 2050, it’s impractical and unfair to require all countries to reach that goal simultaneously.Going Green in India: Balancing Energy Security and the Energy Transition
This essay examines India’s energy security in the short and medium term and finds that development needs will drive the country’s energy policy, which balances energy security with the energy transition.Understanding Time-of-Day and Seasonal Variations in Supply and Demand for...
Rahul Tongia, Aarushi Dave and Utkarsh Dalal study the impacts of times-of-day and seasons on the different types of fuels for generation electricity, their output ramp (swing up or down) rates, daily swings between maximum and minimum output, and relative contributions of each fuel type.Viability of Jharkhand’s Electricity Distribution: Distorted by...
Nikhil Tyagi and Rahul Tongia's paper attempts to examine the structure and legacy of electricity distribution in the state with a lens to examine how that impacts the future viability of the distribution companies (DisComs)Lessons from the Legacy of a Scientific Stalwart
India's renowned technologist, VS Arunachalam leaves behind a legacy of scientific accomplishments and institution-building efforts, writes Rahul Tongia.Properly Defining “Green Electricity” is Key to India’s Broader...
Rahul Tongia highlights the complexities of green supply and green consumption. More RE is inevitable and welcome. Better accounting and signalling (such as time-of-day and congestion pricing) can help grow RE at lower overall system costs.Power Sector Needs a Regulatory Overhaul
Insufficient regulated tariffs are the dominant reasons for discom cash shortfalls. Fixing this is necessary and urgent says Rahul Tongia, Rajasekhar Devaguptapu and Nikhil Tyagi.Discom Gaps Need Urgent Systemic Fixes
Non-performance by discoms only explains a minority fraction of cumulative financial gaps of over ₹10L-crore — the real issues are more deep-rooted.Getting India’s Electricity Prices “Right”: It’s More...
In this paper, Nikhil Tyagi and Rahul Tongia examine the equilibrium of retail pricing, beginning with the question whether prices are in compliance with the Electricity Act 2003 enshrined National Tariff Policy, which states that cross-subsidies should be limited to ±20% of costs.India has Big Clean Energy Goals – So Why is it Banking on Coal?
India's renewables targets, while ambitious, will still not be enough to meet rising power demand, comments Rahul Tongia.Podcast | Path to Climate Justice in a Net Zero World | ft. Tejal Kanitkar...
In this India Energy Hour podcast episode, Rahul Tongia discusses how we can design equitable models for climate action.Breaking Down the Gap in DisCom Finances: Explaining the Causes of Missing...
Rajasekhar Deveguptapu and Rahul Tongia comprehensively analyse DisCom finances using a long time series that aims to examine and answer pertinent questions on finances and performance.Does Nuclear Power have a Role in our Climate Change Strategy?
Yes, nuclear power has a role in climate change strategy, but we will have to rethink several aspects of our current policy on this form of energy before it can meet its promise.Podcast | Should India Consider Phasing Out Nuclear Power?
There are questions on whether nuclear power, with its attendant concerns on cost and safety, remains a relevant option for a future that is fossil-free, particularly in India.Why Electricity Subsidies Need an Urgent Rethink
Who is deserving of a subsidy is difficult to answer, for this is a policy choice. However, we can benchmark policies by examining who gets how much subsidy.Historical Wind Power in Karnataka Differs from Predictive Models: A...
Marty Shwarz and Rahul Tongia examine the performance of wind power across climatology, technology, and location.Can Developing Economies Have High Growth Without Using Coal? A Debate.
Rahul Tongia and Jason Bordoff square off on a question that will confront emerging nations in the coming years.Inequality in Air Pollution Mortality from Power Generation in India
Abstract India’s coal-heavy electricity system is the world’s third largest and a major emitter of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, it remains a focus of decarbonisation and air pollution control policy. Considerable heterogeneity exists between states in India in terms of electricity demand, generation fuel mix, and emissions. However, no ...Subnational Implications from Climate and Air Pollution Policies in...
This analysis provides valuable guidance about the development of the power sector and the costs associated with different development pathways.Sustained Cost Declines in Solar PV and Battery Storage Needed to...
The results of this research describe the challenging technological and policy advances needed to achieve the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.Podcast | Are Current Climate Initiatives Unfair to Developing Nations?
Rahul Tongia speaks to Kai Ryssdal of NPR Marketplace about how current climate initiatives are unfair towards developing nations.It is Unfair to Push Poor Countries to Reach Zero Carbon Emissions too...
Rahul Tongia argues about the need to shift the conversation from futuristic Net-Zero ambitions toward practical and equitable emissions trajectories in this year's COP.For Energy, it’s not RE vs Coal – Adopt a Portfolio Approach
India is undergoing an energy transition, but it must not write off coal. The most cost-effective way to balance the grid in 2030 will be to keep both thermal power and renewables in the basket of options.Follow-up Thoughts on India’s Grid 2030: A Glass Half Cloudy
India should aggressively go down the RE path, but not focus on just RE. Energy efficiency, smart systems, energy security, local manufacturing, livelihoods, fiscal balances, etc. are all very important.Potential of Lower Costs of Capital for Faster Decarbonisation in...
The study by Rahul Tongia focuses on ways to encourage the energy transition for developing countries where high costs of capital are a factor in keeping a spread between fossil fuel technologies and non-carbon solutions.Balancing India’s 2030 Electricity Grid Needs Management of Time...
Rahul Tongia's study presents results from the first-of-a-kind model to handle high uncertainty, which uses parametric analysis instead of stochastic analysis for grid balancing based on economic despatch through 2030, covering 30-min resolution granularity at a national level.Current and Future Estimates of Marginal Emission Factors for Indian Power...
India’s power generation is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions. The authors quantify current and future marginal emissions factors for power generation in India across seasons, times-of-day, and states.A Granular Comparison of International Electricity Prices and Implications...
This paper highlights some of the specificities of other countries and their electricity prices in order to better direct regulatory attention to measures that could be relevant for India, and to gauge where India’s position is when it comes to global electricity prices.Policy Revamps that Will Help Scale Storage Technologies
The key need for improving storage is innovation, which is not just a technical issue but extends to business models and regulatory frameworks. While there is a need to scale up production, we should also revamp how we integrate and plan for storage, writes Rahul Tongia.Give Coal the Attention and Effort that it Needs
The fundamental issue remains woefully short stockpiles. With a recent increase in the domestic demand, and high global prices, the key is to address crucial issues of planning, feedback (or lack thereof), and risk, says Rahul Tongia.Reforming Electricity Distribution in India: Understanding Delicensing and...
The changes being proposed by the government for delicensing distribution and allowing multiple discoms in the same geographical area are unlikely to solve the problems in the power sector, particularly regarding the poor financial health of discoms.Net Zero: Pledges Are Not Enough
There are several problems with the so-called 'carbon neutrality' pledges. These can only be understood properly if they are accompanied by details and given tight accounting norms.Net Zero Carbon Pledges Have Good Intentions. But They are Not Enough.
Reaching zero is important, but there is no universal consensus on when the date of net zero should be. The “sooner the better” remains a common refrain.The Inside Story of India’s Coal and Power Crises
Simple arithmetic will show that power plants consumed more coal than they received, but given that generation wasn’t exceptionally high, does this mean the problem was supply?Flatten-the-curve: Why total carbon emissions matter much more than...
Becoming zero is important, but “date of net-zero” is incomplete, lacking any measure of what the date should be. “Sooner is better” remains a motherhood statement.Balancing India’s electricity grid in 2030: A detailed, granular...
India has some of the most aggressive RE targets in the world. How can we offer solutions to balance the electricity grid and osupply and demand?Challenges For Natural Gas to Become India’s Bridge Fuel
Rahul Tongia examines the relevance of natural gas both through the lens of competitive economic viability as well as other impacts.Challenges for natural gas to become India’s bridge fuel
Rahul Tongia examines the possibilities for natural gas in India’s energy mix.Can natural gas be a ‘bridge’ fuel in India’s energy transition?
India’s focus for natural gas should be where it displaces coal, especially 'dirty', inefficient coalA low-carbon future through sector-led change
In India, a sector-led, action-based approach could provide the framework to drive low-carbon transformation.New electricity consumer rules: Reading the impact on ‘rooftop solar’...
The older regime benefited just a handful. The new rules should spur a conversation on equitable and sustainable pricing frameworksChallenges for natural gas to become India’s bridge fuel: Economics,...
This paper examines the possibilities for natural gas in India’s energy mix, both through the lens of competitive economic viability as well as the impact its use might have, notably, on carbon emissions.New electricity consumer rules: Reading the impact on ‘rooftop solar’...
The older regime benefited just a handful. The new rules should spur a conversation on equitable and sustainable pricing frameworksEnhancing competition in India’s power sector
Fixing Discoms is a pressing need, but it’s worth investing time in figuring out the details, including expected winners and losers, and possibilities for gaming.Need for an integrated approach for coal power plants
This discussion note suggests an integrated approach to addressing the retirement of older coal plants, installation of ECS, etc,.Coal power plants need an integrated approach
The three issues — retirement, pollution control, and making plants flexible — are inter-related. They need to be addressed in an integrated fashion by distribution companies.India’s DisCom stress is more than the sum of its past
There must be an overhaul of the regulation of electricity firms and their deliverables using common sense metricsReconciling DisCom ‘stimulus’ and dues: We must look beyond the tip of...
DisComs needs support in the coming months, exacerbated by COVID-19, which has hurt revenues more than the reduction in demand.India’s energy transition: Coal is down but not out
The coal transition is already underway. There may be a lot of uncertainty, but what is even more certain is that the future will not look like the past – and it shouldn’t. The future should be cleaner, more inclusive, more efficient, and more secure, not to mention cost-effective.Why India’s push for private-sector coal mining won’t raise carbon...
After decades of public-sector dominance, and controls that relegated the private sector to minority status in coal mining, India recently launched commercial coal mining via coal mine auctions. Proponents argue this will help bring in not just more capital and improved technology, but also improve the quality of production and output; critics worry this will lock ...Comments and analysis of Draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020
Few would dispute that change is required in the legislative and regulatory framework of the power sector in India.Impact of temperature on electricity demand: Evidence from Delhi and...
This study measures the change in electricity demand in response to weather shocks at the household level in Delhi, and at various aggregate levels in India.How COVID-19 might impact India’s renewable energy transition
India, like other countries, had an ongoing energy transition, but the question becomes will COVID-19 create a pause or a shift in the trajectories? Or, will it induce radical change? No one can know for sure, in part because we don’t know what the “new normal” will be, but also because timeframes ...DisComs post-COVID-19: Untangling the historical challenges, needs, and...
COVID has unleashed a relatively unique global pandemic with economic, human, and institutional upheavals that haven’t been seen in generations. Economies are in a tailspin, and employment has been one of the biggest casualties beyond direct human health. The collapse of both liquidity and economic activity hits DisComs harder than many other ...Impact of temperature on electricity demand: Evidence from Delhi and...
Impact of temperature on electricity demand: Evidence from Delhi and Indian statesHow to hasten the energy transition in the developing world
Emerging economies are expected to experience the highest growth in energy demand in the coming decades, mostly because they are starting from a low or modest base. This means their future energy trajectories must be at an intersection of inclusive, affordable, and sustainable growth. However, for all the potential that advanced energy technologies ...India’s biggest challenge: The future of farming
India has enough food; does it have too many people working in agriculture? The country needs a different set of solutions for agriculture and for those working the land.Insights from the Brookings India Electricity and Carbon Tracker
Brookings India launched the Electricity and Carbon Tracker, a first-of-its-kind near real-time tracker of electricity generation by type of source as well as electricity carbon emissions at an all-India level. With high resolution data, we can now do a Time of Day (ToD) level analysis of India’s power generation system. The tracker ...Understanding India’s Power Capacity: Surplus or not, and for how...
Abstract For the first time, India has sufficient or even surplus electricity generation capacity. Headline numbers show India’s gross installed electricity capacity is over 350 GW, but the maximum load met has been approximately 180 GW. Does this mean we have sufficient buffer for years to come? A significant fraction of this ...Will breaking up Coal India Limited lead to efficiency and competition?
Inherent and structural differences mean simply breaking up CIL will not unleash meaningful competition, not unless the system is willing to bear a high spread in coal prices. Location matters enormously, and coal ends up being a not very liquid commodity (no pun intended). Newspaper reports have spoken about breaking up Coal ...The future of Indian electricity supply: Scenarios of coal use by 2030
India is expected to be among the top growth markets in the world for electricity in the coming decade. At the same time, electricity supply mixes are changing worldwide, in large part due to the rise of renewable energy (RE). Apart from RE, the elements of the Indian electricity sector transition today ...India 2024: A sustainable India
How things change in five years. We have seen many positive steps, some with effort, some part of broader global trends. Nearly all homes in India today have an electricity connection, and the prices of solar power have crashed to a level where newspapers talk of “grid parity.” Carbon is a universal ...Coal in India
Executive summary Coal provides about half of India’s commercial primary energy supply today and is the dominant fuel for power production in India. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi established ambitious goals for renewable energy (RE) development, aiming to quadruple its capacity by 2022. Despite expected growth in RE, we project that ...Around the halls: Brookings experts on what to watch at the COP 24 climate...
The 24th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) begins Monday, December 3, in Katowice, Poland. Normally the host plays a big leadership role. This is the third time Poland has physically hosted the COP more than any other country, except Germany (which hosts the ...Amendments to the Electricity Act 2003: A summary, analysis and public...
The year 2018 has brought about a new set of draft/proposed Amendments to the Electricity Act 2003 (EA2003), which are an extension to the draft amendments introduced in Lok Sabha in 2014 but did not pass. EA2003 is the central act governing the power sector structure and policy in India, and any ...Complexities of integrating Renewable Energy into India’s grid
In 2014, India unilaterally announced plans to quadruple Renewable Energy (RE) to 175 GW by 2022, an ambitious target that required an annual growth (CAGR) of over 25 percent. Since then, growth has exploded, especially for grid-scale solar power, which is meant to be 100 of the 175 GW RE targeted. Until ...Renewable Energy “versus” coal in India – A false framing as...
Comparing Renewable Energy and Coal A number of publications proclaim Renewable Energy (RE) is cheaper than coal. A newspaper will often show two cost curves, a rising one for coal, and a falling one for RE, especially solar (Figure 1). At some point they cross-over, an intersection dubbed “grid parity”. It’s a ...Energy sector data: Suggestions for improving data quality and usability
More energy and power sector data is available in India than ever before, especially through a combination of websites and portals. We propose that issues in locating, procuring and acquiring data be ironed out for researchers and practitioners to conduct more evidence-based policy research and contribute to the national discourse. Researchers use ...Understanding India, its energy needs and ambitions, and the global...
At least one newspaper headline this year declared that renewable energy in India is now cheaper than coal and that coal is surely on its way out. However, recent research from my Brookings colleague Samantha Gross and me shows that the transition will not be nearly as smooth as some imagine. Renewable ...Working to turn ambition into reality
Executive Summary Even before signing the Paris climate agreement, the Indian government announced extremely ambitious renewable energy (RE) targets that would quadruple the country’s RE capacity between late 2014 and 2022, to 175 gigawatts (GW).1 From India’s relatively small RE base, this target implies annual growth of 25 percent a targeted buildout ...Indian Railways and coal: An unsustainable interdependency
Coal and railways in India are heavily interdependent. In the Financial Year (FY) 2017, out of 574 MT of coal (inclusive of imports) consumed for grid electricity generation (Central Electricity Authority, 2017), 341 MT, or 60 per cent, was transported through railways (Railway Board, March 2017). On average railways accounts for over ...Embarrassment of riches? The rise of RE in India and steps to manage...
Does India have ‘too much’ electricity capacity? Every electricity grid operates in a balance between supply and demand, usually with a slight surplus of capacity to meet eventualities and uncertainty too much surplus becomes expensive. Surplus has two sides: either the demand is lower than projected, or supply is higher than required ...Electrifying mobility in India
India’s electric vehicles' (EV) aspirations are steep from where we stand today, but they have sparked remarkable interest and action in policy, industry and research arenas.Commercial coal mining in India: A possible but not irrefutable game...
The recent Cabinet decision to open up coal mining to commercial miners, who will now have the freedom to sell coal in the open market, is an interesting development. For decades since its nationalisation, the public sector Coal India Limited (CIL) has dominated coal production in India, producing some 82 per cent ...Is future planning of electricity grid keeping India’s pace of...
A seminar and discussion at Brookings India recently focused on the impact of electrification on the electricity demand growth and also included insights from global experiences and the possible policy implications for India. Key speaker at this event was Johannes Urpelainen of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Founding Director ...Recommendations for reforms in India’s coal mining space
Coal India Limited (CIL) commissioned a study in 2017 to analyse the long term trends that would play a role in determining the future for coal in the country. While commissioning the project, CIL noted, “With government’s efforts to push renewable energy due to international conventions on climate change, increase in carbon ...Microgrids in India: Myths, misunderstandings, and the need for proper...
India has a vibrant market for batteries and inverters and even diesel generators – but a cynic could call these responses to the failure of the grid in providing quality supply. Are microgrids similarly stepping in to fill gaps in grid-based supply? This Impact Series Paper revisits the fundamentals and drivers for ...Power Sector Data and Frameworks in India: Thinking ahead for data usage,...
Data is becoming more and more important for all spheres of public and private activity. The power sector is no different, but much of data has been for operational reasons, ranging from billing to power management to operations. With the rise of IT (and eventually, the Internet of Things), data is now ...Renewable Energy Forecasting in India – Not a simple case of ‘more...
Growing Renewable Energy (RE) means a greater increase in variability of supply, a relatively newer phenomenon for grids where demand was the usual variable, and supply was tightly controlled, or ‘despatchable’. One cannot control the wind or sun, but one at least needs to predict it well, so that the rest of ...Can the Saubhagya scheme work?
The government’s recently announced 100 per cent household electrification scheme, Saubhagya, aims to tackle the next link for electrification, where until now most efforts focused at the village or hamlet level. The good news is that most villages are now connected to the grid, and remote locations far from the grid are ...Saubhagya programme: The next bold step for electrification – necessary...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a new scheme called Saubhagya to ensure electrification of all willing households in the country in rural as well as urban areas by 2019. The focus is on last mile connectivity and poor households would be provided electricity connections free of cost. Is Modi’s new electricity-for-all-homes scheme Saubhagya ...Challenges ahead for clean energy
Who doesn’t want clean or ‘green’ energy? But what if this costs a bit more? We might quickly find many people’s appetite for renewable energy (RE) is lower, especially if the worry cited is something as invisible, long-term, and global as CO2 emissions that impact climate change. RE is making enormous progress ...Is the draft national energy policy for India actionable?
One cannot envy the task given to the NITI Aayog to produce a National Energy Policy (NEP). Almost all projections for future energy needs, worldwide, have not panned out, as this space is very dynamic and assumption-driven. The erstwhile Planning Commission did focus on broad energy issues beyond the line-item ministries with ...Rethinking the budget in a post-GST India
The goods and services tax (GST) is finally here, so perhaps now is the time to reflect on how the budget can be updated for a post-GST India. Just as the GST aims to create national uniformity in taxation, rethinking budgets can also push efficiency. A bold step the government can take ...Making a smart energy grid work for India
Newspapers are showcasing the dramatically lower costs of solar power, reportedly cheaper than coal power now, and we are told that smart grids (and smart cities) are just around the corner. While enormous strides have been made in making these solutions both available and cheaper, we have to focus on the next ...Clean energy can cement Indo-US ties
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Washington, US President Donald Trump and he will find numerous areas of disagreement. High on that list will be climate change. Early this month, Trump put a stick in the eye of the world by announcing that he will pull the US out of the ...Trump’s Paris Agreement withdrawal: What it means and what comes...
Today, President Donald Trump announced that he will withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change. It was adopted in 2015 by 195 nations, with 147 ratifying it including the United States, which is the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter. Experts offer their analyses on what the ...Delhi’s inefficient electricity subsidies
Who doesn’t like discounts or freebies, especially from the government? Subsidies aren’t inherently wrong they can help keep goods and services affordable, and encourage “good” things like education. The challenge is making them efficient and focused, so that they help the poor and deserving the most. The Delhi government offers substantial subsidies ...Delhi’s household electricity subsidies: High and inefficient
Subsidies in the power sector aren’t new or unique to Delhi. These can play a helpful role in keeping power affordable for citizens, but the downsides of poor subsidy designs range from poor signalling of true costs, leading to wastage, to over-charging some users and financial losses for the utilities. This paper ...Challenges, recommendations for meeting 2017 norms for air pollution from...
In this Brookings India IMPACT Series paper, Rahul Tongia and Deborah Seligsohn discuss the challenges for India in meeting the upcoming 2017 standards for air pollution from thermal power plants. While these new environmental norms are a welcome step in reducing emissions and are in line with global standards, gaps still remain in ...No such thing as a perfect renewable energy contract
India’s 175 GW renewable energy (RE) targets by 2022 are ambitious, to say the least. Compared to RE targets in Europe, China, or California that require 4-5% growth in RE capacity annually, Indian targets require 25% growth. This translates to enormous capital investment (well over $100 billion), including from global investors. RE ...Data management: India needs agency for energy data
India has no central body for maintaining and disseminating energy data, let alone analysing it. We propose the creation of a national Energy Information Agency to replace the current patchwork of systems. This would collect, standardize and analyse data across energy domains and make it publicly available. A lack of robust data ...How India can meet its ambitious renewable energy targets
A systemic approach that focuses on enabling the environment for more renewable energy will help India to meet its target of generating 175 gigawatts of energy by 2021. At the recently concluded Marrakesh Conference, most countries stood by their commitments made in Paris at COP21 for reducing carbon emissions. India’s ratification, on ...The government’s ‘little mistakes’ can have a high cost
A relative passed away recently… or should I say in the future? See the official government death certificate issued, which shows a particular date. What do you interpret that date as? In India, as we follow the British system, most people would interpret this as 9 December, 2016 (09/12/16). But she passed ...Save me, technology; for I have (energy) sinned
Many things demand a balance, energy being one of them. Electricity, in fact, must always be in balance as grid power cannot easily be stored. Unfortunately, in recent times the emphasis has shifted from reducing the demand of power in India through efficiency to increasing its supply. Except for limited examples such ...“Govt’s ambitious power capacity target may lead to huge...
The Economic Times on our latest IMPACT Series paper, ‘India’s Updated (2016) Renewable Energy “Guidelines”: Bold targets, but can we meet them?’. Download the paper here. The article says, “The numbers for renewable energy, coal-fired capacity and power demand don’t quite add up upon triangulation. The targeted 1,500 million tonne of coal by ...India’s Updated (2016) Renewable Energy “Guidelines”:...
The government has announced a number of targets and support mechanisms for renewable energy (RE). Almost two years ago, the central government announced plans to grow to 175 GW of RE capacity by 2022, more than a five-fold growth in just seven years. RE has since been supported through a number of ...Paper | India’s coal requirement by 2020: A bottom-up analysis
Key findings India is heavily dependent on coal based power for its electricity needs, 79 per cent of total electricity generation is coal/thermal based. This is not expected to change drastically in the near future. Thermal power generation consumes around 76 per cent of total coal available in the country (imports included). ...Think you’re being eco-friendly by using cloth bags? Think again
The most important factor for cloth bags to actually be “eco-friendly”: reuse 171 times. That’s how many times one reportedly has to reuse a cloth bag to justify the extra energy consumed for its manufacture compared to a disposable plastic bag. While the exact number may vary with the thickness of the ...Is the struggle between China and India a struggle to secure their energy...
India will need to import the bulk of its fuel for this decade and the next. In another four years, India is expected to become the world’s largest coal importer, overtaking Japan, the European Union and China. The Chinese attempts to dominate the South China Sea is, from the Indian standpoint, far more ...A game changer: Electricity feeder monitoring
The Government of India is proposing a bold and major scheme for monitoring, visualizing, and analyzing feeder level power supply across the nation, monitoring all the 11kV distribution feeders. In conjunction, a parallel scheme, Urja-Mitra, aims to notify consumers of outages, via SMS and online apps. Put together, these should be a ...Updating Aadhaar for better privacy
Privacy with Aadhaar isn’t just an abstract issue, but related to the fundamental view of how data are to be accessed and used writes Rahul Tongia To its proponents, Unique Identification (UID, branded Aadhaar) is the solution to citizen empowerment. To its opponents, UID is a violation of not only citizen privacy ...Planning for Accelerating Smart Meter and Smart Grid Rollouts in India
The Electricity Policy has taken a bold move to kick-start Smart Meters in India. This discussion note discusses roll-out the options. Many HT consumers are already on digital metering, that too with downloading of data (even if via a handheld instrument). Making such users’ metering “smart” will be analogous to AMR (automated ...Brookings India Roundtable on “Future of Coal – 2020”
A Brookings India roundtable on “Future of Coal – 2020” invited experts to discuss future coal demand for the country, and also to share preliminary findings of our ongoing research on the challenges in ensuring sufficient coal supply contingent with the demand. Summary: The three key preliminary findings from our research are: Coal demand ...Budget 2016: Reduce & refocus power & diesel subsidies
Brookings India Fellow Dr. Rahul Tongia’s energy wishlist for Budget 2016 may be difficult to pull off in a single budget, it gives a pathway to energy sustainability There’s a budget around the corner, and energy scholars/economists/etc. all have a number of wishes they hope can be announced, often related to pricing, ...Over-Ruled: Why Maximum Governance Must Start With Minimizing Certain...
Some time ago, I missed my grandfather’s funeral because an airline’s manager hid behind rules. No, I wasn’t asking him to break any rules, but he didn’t let me fly despite there being empty seats, my pleading to please charge me any price he wanted, and my being at the airport almost ...Interview | India warns country’s coal consumption to double in...
Rahul Tongia, Fellow, Energy and Environment in an interview with James Bennett, AM, ABC News, Friday December 18, on India’s coal consumption in the coming years. KIM LANDERS: As celebrations subside following the Paris climate accord, the world’s third-biggest emitter India is warning its coal consumption will still double in coming years. ...India and Climate Change – Spoilsport or just late to the party?
India may have been late to the emissions party, but with innovation and rapid development, it can make a disproportionate contribution to emissions reduction. India’s carbon reduction pledges (the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDCs) have been labelled as medium or even weak by many global observers. Global op-eds talk of India ...Delhi’s bar on cars: Using a sword instead of a scalpel for surgery
Enough has been written (mostly against) the idea to limit cars in Delhi, by license plate. Will it work? Can you enforce it? Will it lead to more sales of alternate number of cars? And, most importantly, are alternatives such as public transport ready, especially considering issues of first/last mile? Much of ...Will India accept legally binding agreements at COP21?
As world leaders gather for the global COP21 climate negotiations. Many may feel it is now or never. But the question remains, who is supposed to contribute how much toward emissions reductions? India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) submission has targeted a measurable (33-35 percent) improvement in emissions intensity (per GDP) versus ...Average rural consumer ends up subsidizing power for urban residents
An article in the Scientific American quotes Brookings India Fellow Rahul Tongia’s research. Rural homes regularly experience rolling blackouts during times of peak demand as utilities move available power to commercial operations and energy-hungry cities. That means the average rural consumer ends up subsidizing power for urban residents by 240 to 510 ...Rating of Distribution Utilities in India: Linking the Financial with...
In August 2015, the Ministry of Power released the State Distribution Utilities Third Annual Integrated Ratings. This is the third instance of rating for utilities undertaken by the same agencies, thereby imparting some consistency to them. Though it is a transparent attempt to measure utility operations and financial performance, the current metrics do not go ...Cleaning coal instead of wishing it away
The World Bank recently announced that short of exceptional circumstances, they would no longer fund coal in developing regions. The U.S. and other nations are also contemplating, if not making, similar choices, driven in part by concerns about climate change. This view may be impractical, if not myopic, given that at least ...Smart is as smart does
A few years ago, smart grids were all the rage Amitabh Bachchan was even on the cover of a business magazine in 2010 with a Smart Meter, and was dubbed “Power Genie”. Given, however, the low percentage of Smart Meter rollouts across homes, we have to be wary of Gartner’s famous Hype ...Shaping India’s energy future: Ambitions, actions and obstacles
Multi-domain, multi-scale, and multi-stakeholder efforts are needed to overcome the combination of acute and chronic challenges facing India’s energy future. Analogies aren’t perfect, but a number from the healthcare domain could apply to energy. Doctors often characterize diseases or conditions as acute or chronic – energy faces both sets of challenges. In ...Making India’s Electricity Utilities Viable Enterprises: Economics,...
The Indian electricity system is struggling. Worldwide challenges of supply security, fuel choice, environmental impacts (now adding carbon and climate change), and sustainable business models are present, but the last one is where India is furthest behind. We have a muddled system with state and private participation that satisfies neither the social ...Brightening the future with the sun and wind
India received commitments for over 260,000 MW of renewable energy during RE-Invest. While this is a great supply-side achievement, there are several issues in terms of handling this, and implications for the grid, both technically and financially. The Renewable Energy (RE) Global Investor’s Meet inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February ...India and Climate Change: Reversing the Development-Climate Nexus
After the November 2014 joint U.S.-China announcement on climate change, all eyes turned towards India. What would India do? Would it sign a similar agreement, especially with the impending visit by President Barack Obama? Even if some agreement were signed, what would India promise? Probably one of the best outcomes of the ...Electrified, but without electricity
No one would believe that simply owning a smartphone would be enough to go online and get connected one would still need a data connection for that to happen. Similarly, it is time that we added a similar level of service to define electrification, a focus area for the government. A decade ...India-U.S. Energy Cooperation: Moving to Green, Clean and Smart
The U.S. is the second largest energy consumer in the world, and India is soon to become the third. The U.S. already has a large consumption base; India has enormous growth ahead of it given the low per capita levels of energy consumption (an order of magnitude lower than the U.S.). This ...Re-thinking Access and Electrification in India: From Wire to Service
“Electrification” has been a priority for India for many years, and there are ongoing plans and projects to improve access to many more households, followed by electricity for all in the coming years. Despite improvements in the threshold for village electrification (moving from any single point to 10% of homes plus common ...Do rural residential electricity consumers cross-subside their urban...
Santosh Harish and Rahul Tongia examine inequities in supply of household electricity in India, using minute-level data for every feeder across a major utility. Their model and results indicate disparities in load-shedding equate to a welfare transfer, from the rural areas to metropolitan areas or big cities, in the order of thousands ...Why plumbing in India starts leaking in a few months while it lasts...
This column first appeared in Quartz, on August 10, 2014. Like all products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to discussion and stimulate debate on important issues. The views are solely those of the author. Indians are proud of their frugality. Saving money is normally a virtue, but in some ...No Imminent Renewables “Death Spiral” for India’s...
Rahul Tongia explains the challenges facing utility companies in India from distributed generation of renewables and a tiered pricing system in need of reform.Smart Grids in India: Separating Hype from Hope
Rahul Tongia discusses why Smart Grids in India have become a distinct possibility, instead of a science experiment, and why they can succeed now.
Why Renewable Energy Is Harder in India than in Other Countries
Rahul Tongia discusses the challenges of renewable energy sources in India and offers recommendations to help better integrate renewables into the grid.
Time of day electricity pricing: From utilities to consumers
What is the value of saving one unit (or kilowatt-hour, kWh) of electricity? Most households would think about their bill, and then try and recall what they pay for electricity. What a large number of consumers don’t always realize is they pay a regulator-approved price that varies with their level of consumption, ...