NEWSCAN
Indian states lacking in new initiatives, finds NITI Aayog’s SECI Report
NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog, in April 2022, released first of its kind report named ‘State Energy and Climate Index’ (SECI). The report has been created as a tool for policy-makers and the state authorities in identifying the leaders and the laggards in the energy sector, and fine-tuning the policies to promote better energy deployment. Such indices are crucial as states and UTs have to play a pivotal role in implementing the policies and realising the goals set by India in the energy sector. With a population of 1.3 billion, India has a massive demand for energy to run this growing economy. India’s ongoing industrialisation and urbanisation is expected to place enormous pressure on the energy sector, therefore, decarbonising the demand and supply of energy would be critical to reduce emissions in the country. India is one of the countries occupying the center stage in the world’s quest for clean energy transition and mitigation of climate change. Recently, India ranked 10th in the Climate Change Performance Index 2022. The assessment in SECI Report is done on the basis of 27 indicators grouped into six parameters DISCOM’s (distribution company) performance; access, affordability and reliability
of energy; clean energy initiatives; energy efficiency; environmental sustainability; and new initiatives. The index is based on 2019-2020 data. The report noted country-level scores of each parameter, which were calculated as an average of the state-wise score for their respective parameters. The overall score for India worked out to be 40.6. The average score at the national level for DISCOM’s performance is 56.8. The average scores of two parameters i.e., access, affordability & reliability, and environmental sustainability are 46.4 and 37.7 respectively. The report noted the need for improving performance in terms of clean energy initiatives and energy efficiency as the national level average score of these parameters are 22.2 and 29.1 respectively. The allIndia average score for new initiatives is 11.1 which is the lowest among all parameters. The states have been listed in three categories- large states, smaller states and union territories. Gujarat topped the index with a SECI score of 50.1, followed by Kerala (49.1) and Punjab (48.6), amongst the larger states, while Goa has topped the list of smaller states followed by Tripura. Amongst the seven union territories, Chandigarh has the highest SECI score at 55.7
closely followed by Delhi at 55.6. Punjab scored highest under the parameter of DISCOM’s Performance with 77.1 score. Kerala topped the list in the category of access, affordability & reliability. Chandigarh scored highest points in clean energy initiatives and environmental sustainability. Tamil Nadu, with score of 85.4, topped the category of energy efficiency and Tripura scored highest amongst all states in new initiatives. Overall, among the larger states, the top three performers are Gujarat, Kerala, and Punjab; and the bottom three performers are Jharkhand, MP and Chhattisgarh. Among the smaller states, Goa, Tripura, and Manipur are the top performers while Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh are the bottom three states. Among UTs, Chandigarh, Delhi and Daman & Diu/Dadar & Nagar Haveli are the top three performers, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Jammu & Kashmir and Lakshadweep are the bottom three performers. The report stated that even though India has achieved almost 100 per cent electrification, the national and subnational governments are still required to work towards ensuring a reliable supply of power, reducing losses, reducing regulatory assets, etc.
www.urbanupdate.in | May 2022
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