23 Jan 2024 : The Hindu Editorial

Topic 1 : Fired up and plugged in – Driving India’s energy security and decarbonisation this decade.

Context: In this critical decade, the spotlight will be on how India decarbonises its power sector while ensuring economic development and energy security

Introduction

• As India throttles to become the fastest-growing economy in the coming years, it will have to grow in the wake of a global agreement at COP-28 to phase down unabated coal.
• In this critical decade, the spotlight will be on how India decarbonises its power sector while ensuring economic development and energy security.

India at the forefront of climate action

• As the seventh most-vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change, India has been at the forefront of climate action — it has reduced overall fossil fuel subsidies by 76% between FY14 and FY22 and is priming the domestic industry to nearly triple its installed renewable power generation capacity by 2030.

Coal imbroglio

• Despite significant climate action and ambition, coal-based power plants continue to provide the base power load support of over 100 GW on most days of the year.
• Coal is especially indispensable during non-solar hours and the post-monsoon season — when hydro availability is low — catering to over 80% of the peak demand in the evening and night.
• Due to rapidly increasing electricity demand, any predictions of India’s reliance on coal are laden with uncertainty.
• The country has affirmed that while it continues to rapidly expand renewable energy, coal will remain a vital energy source till it reaches the status of a developed country in a geopolitically turbulent world.

What needs to be done?

• But to keep the economy powered while decarbonising, the country will have to use its existing assets better to cater to growing demand, while simultaneously limiting exposure to new coal assets and investing in energy storage capabilities to integrate a higher share of renewable energy in the power grid. Four steps are critical for this.
  • Managing thermal plant outages better during peak demand periods. In 2023, ~38 GW of coal-based power plants across India witnessed unplanned outages or were not called on to generate power during the top 10% peak demand days.
  • Increasing the flexibility of the existing coal fleet. To seamlessly integrate more renewable energy (RE) into the grid, thermal plants that typically produce a steady load of power must learn to follow the vagaries of the wind and the sun. This can be done by making our existing coal plants more flexible — reducing their minimum power load and improving ramp rate capabilities.
  • Incentivising payment for storage services beyond the supply of energy units. In a scenario where RE has to contribute significantly to our demand, energy storage systems will have to support the power grid during hours when renewables are not available. This is the reason for many new ‘round-the-clock’ bids that combine RE and storage, where surplus generation of renewable energy is stored in a battery.
  • Indigenising supply chains for battery storage and RE technologies. While being the lifeline of the power system, the coal economy is an important source of domestic value addition, job creation and furthering India’s ‘atmanirbhar’ aspirations.

Way forward

• While the attention on the global stage focuses solely on decarbonisation, domestic energy security — especially because of rapidly growing power demand in the short term — will drive policymaker focus and investments in India.
• With falling renewable energy and storage prices, decision-makers need a transparent assessment of the long-term opportunity costs of locking ourselves into conventional power sources to meet near-term power needs.
• They must prioritise low-cost and affordable electricity for all segments of the economy as this is a prerequisite for a flourishing economy and improving standards of living. This will then become the plank for more aggressive decarbonisation commitments in the years ahead.

Topic 2 : From fear to hope: On Ram temple consecration.

Context: The Ram temple must help in healing wounds and creating harmony

Introduction

• The opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya is a sharp turn in the course of the nation. The central role of the state in the rituals associated with the inauguration of the temple is being celebrated by the proponents of the temple, while its opponents fear it is the beginning of a dangerous slide.

Significance!

• Two divergent visions of Indian nationhood inspire the two sides.
• The Prime Minister of the country said it was the beginning of a new era in the history of the country, an era that will last for centuries. He called for humility alongside the celebration of victory and invoked the universality of the spirit of Ram that encompasses all of humanity.
• Portraying the temple as a link between India’s rich cultural inheritance and ambitions for the future, across the various regions and communities of the country, P.M. exhorted fellow citizens to think big and work purposefully for progress.

Need to be conscious and cautious!

• Ram Rajya has had multiple imaginings. The temple in Ayodhya must inspire and promote the conception of a polity determined not by an obsession with the past, but by an appreciation of the difficulties of the present, and the challenges and opportunities of the future.
• The Prime Minister also noted the fact that the temple was facilitated by a judicial decision. The Supreme Court verdict that handed over the disputed land in Ayodhya to the Hindu petitioners had also unambiguously noted that the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, by kar sevaks was a “serious violation of law”.
• Devotees of the temple, in their moment of celebration, should not be unmindful of the past. Triumphalism and grievance must give way to reconciliation and harmony; and fear must yield to hope.
• The temptation to use the same template of settling contests over places of worship must be abandoned immediately. Seeking to settle historical grievances can trigger unpredictable social forces and risk national unity.
• P.M. himself noted this fact while appreciating the relative ease with which the temple was built after the Supreme Court verdict in 2019.

Conclusion

• In the making of present-day politics, the past is often used as malleable material. It can surely be deployed for the purpose of forging unity and creating harmony, instead of for accentuating differences. The wisdom of statecraft is in making the right choice.

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