BATHINDA: While Karnataka and Gujarat have demonstrated efforts in overall preparedness and commitment in the transition to clean electricity, Punjab and Haryana too have performed better than many other states to promote clean electricity which indicates the progress towards a clean electricity transition, new joint report by Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Ember shows. IEEFA examines issues related to energy markets, trends, and policies while Ember is an independent climate and energy think tank.
The report released on Monday analyses 16 states, which together account for 90% of the country’s annual power requirement, across four dimensions. The dimensions track a state’s preparedness to shift away from fossil-fuel-based power, its ability to incentivise greener market participation, its power system‘s reliability and its policies pushing for power sector decarbonisation. Based on this analysis, the report authors devised the States’ Electricity Transition (SET) scoring system, which measures the performance of different states in the transition to clean electricity.
“India’s revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets have put the country on the path for transitioning its electricity sector. To achieve those targets the cooperation of the states is necessary to move faster in their clean electricity transitions. This means states redoubling their efforts to walk the electricity transition pathway, and both central and state governments tracking progress and taking corrective measures as required,” says the report’s co-author Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia, IEEFA. Saloni Sachdeva Michael, Energy Analyst, IEEFA, Aditya Lolla, Senior Electricity Policy Analyst, Ember are co-authors of report.
The report outlines focus areas for states to improve their preparedness for transition, such as exploiting solar and wind generation potential and deploying more energy storage solutions, such as batteries and pumped hydro, for better renewable energy integration.
Objective of the report was to check implementation of achieving targets of clean energy transition at the state level. The report aims to provide the progress and performance of the states on various aspects of the clean electricity transition to help identify the areas that need an impetus.
This framework identified four dimensions of clean electricity transition in consultations with sectoral experts. These dimensions were Decarbonisation, to evaluate the states’ preparedness in terms of shifting from fossil-based power to renewable energy sources. Performance of the Power System, to evaluate states’ ability to create greener market pulls effectively. Readiness of the Power Ecosystem, to evaluate how ready the states are to transform their power systems while ensuring reliable electricity supply and Policies and Political Commitments, to evaluate how proactive the states are being in promoting innovative policies to decarbonise their power sectors. These dimensions and their respective parameters formed the basis for the States’ Electricity Transition (SET) scores.
In Decarbonisation, states of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana performed well across all the parameters. As of September 2022, Punjab turned about a quarter of its renewable energy potential into installed capacity (1.8GW). The state targets to install solar PV projects with a total capacity of 300MW in the state, including 200MW of canal top solar PV power projects and 100MW of floating solar PV power projects on reservoirs and lakes. On the other hand, Haryana has the lowest installed capacity of older, more polluting coal power plants. It only had about 210MW of coal power capacity older than 25 years, which, in absolute terms, is much lower than the numbers in other states. With the retirement of Unit 5 of the Panipat power station in 2020, the state has no coal power plant older than 25 years.
Under Performance of the Power System it was found that in addition to generating electricity, it is crucial to strengthen the distribution and transition infrastructure to accelerate the electricity transition. Karnataka tops the list in this dimension as well. Punjab, Telangana and Gujarat also performed well on most parameters under this dimension. Punjab performed well mainly due to the high scores for DISCOM performance rating and outstanding payments by DISCOMs to generators. However, the recent PFC – Annual Integrated Rating and Ranking report indicates that the DISCOM performance in the state has deteriorated by FY 2021. The state also did not meet its sub-national renewable energy targets and had lower-than-expected volumes transacted through Green Day Ahead Market (GDAM). Punjab saw the purchase or sale of only 86.46MUs through GDAM out of the total 7635MUs exchanged in short-term transactions through bilateral, power exchange and demand side management (DSM). The state successfully reduced its total overdue amount/owed payment ratio to 53% in March 2022 from 116% in March 2018. This helped Punjab get comparatively higher scores in indicators such as debt-equity ratio, regulatory assets, open access surcharge and complexity of tariff in the NITI Aayog index.
Under Readiness of the Power Ecosystem, Punjab performed below average, even behind Odisha and West Bengal. This was mainly due to the state’s inability to meet its annual power requirement in FY2022. It saw a high-power shortage of about 418MUs, which is 0.66% of the total power requirement. Like in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the sudden rise in temperature, lack of adequate coal, and increased international coal prices all led to these shortages in Punjab, which relies heavily on thermal power plants for electricity. However, units that supplied the state suffered from erratic coal availability. A unit of GVK Power’s 540MW thermal power plant at Goindwal Sahib and another of the 1,260MW Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant at Ropar had to shut down in April 2022 because of coal shortages. This ultimately led to Punjab getting scored down.
Under Policies and Political Commitments it was found that every implementation plan starts with intent to bring change. Haryana scored the highest in this dimension, mainly by making the most efforts to avoid coal power lock-in for the future. It previously announced its plans to cut down its dependency on coal power.
The report released on Monday analyses 16 states, which together account for 90% of the country’s annual power requirement, across four dimensions. The dimensions track a state’s preparedness to shift away from fossil-fuel-based power, its ability to incentivise greener market participation, its power system‘s reliability and its policies pushing for power sector decarbonisation. Based on this analysis, the report authors devised the States’ Electricity Transition (SET) scoring system, which measures the performance of different states in the transition to clean electricity.
“India’s revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets have put the country on the path for transitioning its electricity sector. To achieve those targets the cooperation of the states is necessary to move faster in their clean electricity transitions. This means states redoubling their efforts to walk the electricity transition pathway, and both central and state governments tracking progress and taking corrective measures as required,” says the report’s co-author Vibhuti Garg, Director, South Asia, IEEFA. Saloni Sachdeva Michael, Energy Analyst, IEEFA, Aditya Lolla, Senior Electricity Policy Analyst, Ember are co-authors of report.
The report outlines focus areas for states to improve their preparedness for transition, such as exploiting solar and wind generation potential and deploying more energy storage solutions, such as batteries and pumped hydro, for better renewable energy integration.
Objective of the report was to check implementation of achieving targets of clean energy transition at the state level. The report aims to provide the progress and performance of the states on various aspects of the clean electricity transition to help identify the areas that need an impetus.
This framework identified four dimensions of clean electricity transition in consultations with sectoral experts. These dimensions were Decarbonisation, to evaluate the states’ preparedness in terms of shifting from fossil-based power to renewable energy sources. Performance of the Power System, to evaluate states’ ability to create greener market pulls effectively. Readiness of the Power Ecosystem, to evaluate how ready the states are to transform their power systems while ensuring reliable electricity supply and Policies and Political Commitments, to evaluate how proactive the states are being in promoting innovative policies to decarbonise their power sectors. These dimensions and their respective parameters formed the basis for the States’ Electricity Transition (SET) scores.
In Decarbonisation, states of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana performed well across all the parameters. As of September 2022, Punjab turned about a quarter of its renewable energy potential into installed capacity (1.8GW). The state targets to install solar PV projects with a total capacity of 300MW in the state, including 200MW of canal top solar PV power projects and 100MW of floating solar PV power projects on reservoirs and lakes. On the other hand, Haryana has the lowest installed capacity of older, more polluting coal power plants. It only had about 210MW of coal power capacity older than 25 years, which, in absolute terms, is much lower than the numbers in other states. With the retirement of Unit 5 of the Panipat power station in 2020, the state has no coal power plant older than 25 years.
Under Performance of the Power System it was found that in addition to generating electricity, it is crucial to strengthen the distribution and transition infrastructure to accelerate the electricity transition. Karnataka tops the list in this dimension as well. Punjab, Telangana and Gujarat also performed well on most parameters under this dimension. Punjab performed well mainly due to the high scores for DISCOM performance rating and outstanding payments by DISCOMs to generators. However, the recent PFC – Annual Integrated Rating and Ranking report indicates that the DISCOM performance in the state has deteriorated by FY 2021. The state also did not meet its sub-national renewable energy targets and had lower-than-expected volumes transacted through Green Day Ahead Market (GDAM). Punjab saw the purchase or sale of only 86.46MUs through GDAM out of the total 7635MUs exchanged in short-term transactions through bilateral, power exchange and demand side management (DSM). The state successfully reduced its total overdue amount/owed payment ratio to 53% in March 2022 from 116% in March 2018. This helped Punjab get comparatively higher scores in indicators such as debt-equity ratio, regulatory assets, open access surcharge and complexity of tariff in the NITI Aayog index.
Under Readiness of the Power Ecosystem, Punjab performed below average, even behind Odisha and West Bengal. This was mainly due to the state’s inability to meet its annual power requirement in FY2022. It saw a high-power shortage of about 418MUs, which is 0.66% of the total power requirement. Like in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the sudden rise in temperature, lack of adequate coal, and increased international coal prices all led to these shortages in Punjab, which relies heavily on thermal power plants for electricity. However, units that supplied the state suffered from erratic coal availability. A unit of GVK Power’s 540MW thermal power plant at Goindwal Sahib and another of the 1,260MW Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant at Ropar had to shut down in April 2022 because of coal shortages. This ultimately led to Punjab getting scored down.
Under Policies and Political Commitments it was found that every implementation plan starts with intent to bring change. Haryana scored the highest in this dimension, mainly by making the most efforts to avoid coal power lock-in for the future. It previously announced its plans to cut down its dependency on coal power.