There’s a silver lining around that dark cloud called “energy crisis”. Karnataka is performing well on the renewable energy front. In fact, it is outperforming most other states, and exceeding its own targets too in the bargain.
Karnataka achieved 122 per cent of its target and was fourth among the seven states that achieved its renewable purchase obligation (RPO, in short) target. In all, 22 out of 29 states failed to meet their RPO targets which lead to loss of more than 25 per cent electricity that was expected to be generated from renewable energy sources in 2012. The state had an energy deficit of 893 million units in 2012.
The findings are from a survey titled ‘Powering Ahead on Renewables: Leaders and Laggards’ carried out by Greenpeace India and Infraline Energy.
The Northeastern states of Meghalaya and Nagaland, the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and the coastal state of Tamil Nadu have taken the lead in not only meeting their RPO targets but also generating over and above the targets. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have generated 213 per cent and 122 per cent of their RPO targets. Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh stood at 134 per cent and 105 per cent. Meghalaya topped with 564 per cent and Nagaland achieved 190 per cent of their targets.
The report highlights the inconsistency between national renewable energy targets set by the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and RPO targets fixed by state electricity regulators. The overall cumulative targets set by various state regulators is 5.44 per cent, whereas the national target is set at 7 per cent resulting in a deficit of 1.56%, which translates into nearly 14,268 million units of electricity from renewable energy projects.
Greenpeace’s energy campaigner Manish Ram said, “Karnataka displayed astuteness by adopting the energy of the future and becoming a driving force in its support. On the other hand, Delhi as the national capital has set the trend in the reverse direction.”
Ram described the report as an indictment of the whole policy framework around renewables and the dismissive attitude of the government towards it. “The RPO mechanism could have been a tool to bridge the demand-supply gap in the energy sector across the country. But the toothless mechanism combined with unambitious targets has failed to give any impetus to renewables in India. ”
