With the Indian economy growing by leaps and bounds yet
hampered by regular power shortages and blackouts, Indian electricity
regulators are in a tough spot. How to wring more electricity from very limited
infrastructure? The answer lies in energy efficiency. Through collaborations
with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, India
is hoping to learn from California’s
successes in implementing energy efficiency and demand-side management to meet
energy demand.
The past week (June 10, 2011) a delegation of 20 electricity
regulators from 16 Indian states visited Berkeley Lab for a study tour that
included visits to Sacramento to hear from the
grid operator and a utility and to Bakersfield
to tour a solar power facility. The trip also featured presentations by the
California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission,
which, along with Berkeley Lab, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with India’s Forum
of Regulators in 2009 to consult on best practices in utility-based
energy-efficiency programs.
This is the second year that Indian electricity regulators
have visited California
under the MOU, and much progress has been made in the last year, said Berkeley
Lab senior scientist Jayant Sathaye, one of the main organizers of the visit. “The public utility company of the state of Maharashtra
has set up a demand-side management coordinating committee and started pilot
programs for fans and lighting,” he said.
Another step forward has been the launch of the Super-efficient
Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) initiative, championed by the U.S.
Department of Energy and launched by the Clean Energy Ministerial to expand
global markets for efficient products in member countries. “India is an
active member, probably the most active,” Sathaye said. “The Bureau of Energy
Efficiency is running the program in many states and is starting with electric
fans. Berkeley Lab is doing all the analysis.”
The program will eventually include TVs, refrigerators, and
other household appliances, which are becoming increasingly popular with Indian
consumers as more and more enter the middle class. Berkeley Lab researcher Amol
Phadke presented analysis to the delegation showing the potential energy
savings from higher penetration of super efficient appliances. “We feel 70% of
infrastructure that will exist in 2030 has not yet been purchased,” he said. “So let’s not correct mistakes. Let’s avoid mistakes.”
As in the United States,
state authorities in India
have regulatory power, yet awareness of energy efficiency is still relatively
low. “We’ve learned a lot of things here,” said delegation member Ram Pal of
the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission. “The realities in India are
different from here, so it won’’t be that easy to implement these programs, but
we want to try to realize the savings. We have big shortages in my state.”
Berkeley Lab’s ongoing work in India was formalized in 2008 with
the launch of the Berkeley-India Joint Leadership on Energy and the
Environment, or BIJLEE (which means “power” in Hindi), a collaboration that
also includes UC Berkeley.
Berkeley Lab is also working with India to improve the energy
efficiency of its data centers and buildings, two of the fastest-growing
sectors of the Indian economy. Researchers collaborate with developers and IT
companies such as Tata and Infosys who account for much of the growth in India’s
special economic zones.
“They’re building buildings like crazy in India,” said
Berkeley Lab scientist Girish Ghatikar. “Infosys designs a new building every
20 days. It’s very important that we guide them to grow sustainably. India needs at
least 66% more buildings to be able to support the growth it’s experiencing. If
they’re not growing sustainably, energy supply will become a very critical
issue.”