As India pursues its ambitious target of 500 gigawatts (GW) non-fossil fuel power capacity with 50 per cent consumption coming from renewable energy (RE) sources by 2030, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) — the nodal agency responsible for India’s RE resources — rues its lack of powers, even for issuing guidelines, after three decades of existence.
The issue came to the fore while the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy was examining MNRE’s demands for grants last month.
“It is astonishing to note that a ministry, which has been in existence for 30 years, has no power to formulate and issue guidelines because implementation of the Electricity Act is the responsibility of the Power Ministry. It is true that grid connected electricity should be under a single administrative entity in order to have a holistic picture. However, keeping the MNRE as responsible only for generation of renewable power without looking at transmission and distribution gives a fragmented picture,” the committee pointed out.
Power Ministry
The panel reviewed the demands for grants for FY23 and met with MNRE officials on February 22, 2022. The report was considered and adopted a month later, on March 15.
While examining the report, the panel quizzed MNRE Secretary Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi on his ministry’s future role, keeping in view its diminishing active participation in the sector and also that major policies and regulations related to generation, transmission and distribution of electricity are handled by the Power Ministry.
In response, the Secretary said, “We should be given some powers to issue our guidelines, at least. We are a ministry which does not have power even to issue our bidding guidelines because the Electricity Act and its implementation are the responsibilities of the Ministry of Power.”
Fragmented mechanism
Chaturvedi added, “I have also put on record that if you want to go ahead very quickly in RE, you have to have grid connected electricity under a single administrative entity because if we deal only with RE generation without looking at transmission or distribution, then the picture is fragmented.”
Offering suggestions, the panel said that in light of India’s long term commitments on RE and to create synergy in the power sector, “There should be an overhauling of the central administrative entities dealing with electricity with creation of a set up which can bring generation from all sources, along with transmission and distribution, under a single ministry for administrative convenience and to harmonise policy making for all matters relating to this sector.”
“The MNRE should take initiatives in this direction and apprise the committee about the outcome,” the panel directed the ministry.
Ambitious targets
The government has set an ambitious target for installation of 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by December 31, 2022, which includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro power.
Besides, India has made pledges at the COP 26 summit in Glasgow in November 2021 to be fulfilled by 2030 which include increasing non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW, meeting 50 per cent of its energy requirements from RE, reducing total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes, and achieving carbon intensity reduction of 45 per cent over 2005 levels.
Apart from this, India has committed to net zero emissions by 2070.