India and Electricity

For the past two weeks, my office has lost power for at least an hour or two almost everyday. As I have been informed, this is common and I better get used to it. While corporations have their own back up units and batteries, my NGO does not. When the power goes, so does productivity, a problem the Indian government is working furiously to fix.

These brownouts piqued my curiosity and I started to wonder exactly how large a challenge India is facing to meet growing energy demand and how exactly the country plans on meeting it.

The numbers, I discovered, are stunning. Today, India has about 165,000 MW of installed generating capacity, of which, more than half comes from coal-fired units. India plans to increase that capacity to 200,000 MW by 2012, a target the government is sure to miss.

Unfortunately, India’s demand for power is projected to reach 400,000 MW by 2020. If there is an acute power shortage now, I’m having a very hard time believing the situation can be remedied in the next 10 years.

While the government has laid out ambitious plans to meet growing demand with a diverse portfolio of energy sources, including massive investments in renewables, nuclear energy and natural gas, India’s carbon emissions will undoubtedly grow – most likely at a stunning rate. To be sure, king coal, and the cheap electricity it provides, isn't going anywhere. (Below, Indian coal miners)


The bleak reality is that India doesn’t have much of a choice. Carbon emissions simply have to be a secondary consideration as the country looks to provide the fuel it needs to maintain 8% GDP growth and bring tens of millions of rural Indians out of crushing poverty.

Consider this, according to India’s 2001 census, roughly 72% of the population lives in rural villages. Only 80% of those villages are connected to the grid and only 52.5% of rural households have access to electricity.

If India’s energy challenges are at all representative of those faced across the developing world, the global effort to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions will likely be far more difficult than any of us would like to admit – especially those on the left.