Current Affairs 2022 : Energy Security and the Recent Coal Crisis in India

By Yash Singhal

Recently India had seen a shortage of coal in thermal power plants across the nation. Even the trains were running to fill the supply-demand gap. This scenario again pointed towards Energy Security in India. Read below the important points related to Energy Security in India.

India, a diverse plateau, has different power capacity consumption and production of power comprises different methods. Although India is trying to shift its major power production share to renewable sources yet the goal is far from reach. As of now, more than half of the power generation in our country is through fossil fuels that we all know won’t last for long. According to some estimates, if we consume fossil fuels at this pace, then we won’t last over 60 years from now. So to curb this crisis for our future generation, our government has come up with energy security for our nation through the commitment of building 175 gigawatt(GW) of renewable capacity infrastructure. Let’s know some interesting updates on this project.

India is currently not capable of fulfilling its demand for fossil fuels and for that, almost 70% of the national demand is met by importing these fossil fuels. To build the nation self-capable of meeting its demand domestically, PM has come up with the scheme of ‘Atam Nirbhar Bharat’ for each front. It is the need of the hour for the country to stand up and be capable enough to meet domestic consumption self–reliant. As recently we have seen how the global coal crisis has impacted the economy and thus, the country is almost on the verge of forced power cuts.

Hence, to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, our country needs to shift to a greener source of energy or renewable source of energy. PM Narendra Modi has come up to set up 175 GW of renewable power generation plants across the country by 2022. Numbers are yet to come, but by the bits of PM’s commitment at the COP26 summit, India would have 450 GW of solar and another renewable energy capacity by 2030, hence becoming a clean energy pioneer around the globe.

Need for energy security for India

As recently, we have seen that the global coal crisis has hit the globe as well as the country, so to avoid such crunches to face up in the future, India needs to have its energy security plans. However, during the pandemic, coal prices have almost doubled, hence hitting the country's budget estimates and increasing the deficit that also hit the country worst. To make the situation even worse, the crude oil price is also increasing, hence raising concerns about long-term economic stability in India. Along with that, increasing oil prices weaken the Indian rupee to hit its lowest. India is becoming the best and most attractive economy for global investors, hence to pump up those manufacturing plants India needs to have self–reliant plans for supporting the country’s over increasing demand in near future.

Reason for the current crisis in India

In recent times, India has come up with a new trend of offering freebies by political parties to gain political mileage out of which electricity is the prime freebie, hence giving room for the average person for greater power wastage and becoming a more consumerist society. Besides that, India is also set to surpass China in terms of population by 2050, along with that India has a 2.2 birth rate, which means the population is growing rapidly, hence more power is needed to fulfil the demand of the citizens of the country. Yet we don’t have any dedicated plans to guide the same. So improper distribution is one case that resulted in a power crisis in India. Besides that, India is attracting global firms to invest in a country, all thanks to the ‘Make in India’ initiative that resulted in a demographic dividend in the country, which has also increased the power demand. Due to this common household has to face power cuts.

India is also a great plateau that has an unequal distribution of population and hence, the country needs dedicated plans for the distribution. We have also seen in the news that even after 75 years of independence, electricity is yet to reach many households. This is also a major problem that leads to a crisis in the country. Infrastructure is the core of distribution, but we have seen that for the sake of line loss, electricity theft is also a major problem in many districts of our country. Yet with all the major setbacks that the country has seen, the government is focused on having better infrastructure and sustainable generation of power for future generations and if all goes well, India will become self-reliant soon.

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