India Energy Mart to talk power-related issues

Mumbai, Dec 10: With a view to throw light on various burning issues relating to power like energy security and regulatory convergence in the energy sector, the Independent Power Producers Association of India (IPPAI) is holding a two-day seminar which begins on January 19 in New Delhi.

Presently, among the fastest growing economies, India's energy demand, which ranks sixth in the world, is burgeoning at a prodigious rate. India, annually consumes about three per cent of world's total energy and is in fact a net energy importer. The global challenge of energy security coupled by the extreme volatility of energy prices, is greatly impacting world economies, bringing forth a multitude of opportunities as well as risks, new geo-political alignments and interdependencies. The question is no longer the price of fuel but the aggressive foreign acquisitions by some countries bring into focus the uncertainty in future.

Nuclear energy cooperation initiatives have reached unprecedented levels with strategic counterparts such as USA, Russia and France while major international initiatives in energy infrastructure such as the Sakhalin-I gas&oil project in Russia and trans-national pipeline projects are aimed at securing energy supplies for our fast developing economy. Here the hard truth is nuclear energy contributes merely three per cent to India's total power generation.

It is despite the fact that the country's deposits of uranium and thorium could more than take care of the entire energy needs of the country. However,there are too many unsolved problems which include high cost, radioactive wastes, safety, decommissioning costs, technology, etc.

India imports 72 per cent of crude oil for meeting domestic needs and the import bill for crude oil is currently around 100 billion USD per year. With the increased production and use of bio-fuels like bio-diesel and ethanol, the country can gradually reduce its dependence on huge imports of crude fossil oils and become self-sufficient on the front within two decades from now. Similarly, solar energy, wind superpower are some of the other areas which can help the country become self-sufficient in the sector in future.

The other significant issue to be discussed at length during the forthcoming seminar is regulatory convergence in energy-framework.

The command and control mode of governance that relied on state ownership of infrastructure services is slowly giving way to regulatory governance where public private partnerships and private sector participation required governmental priorities to be achieved through independent regulation and the law of contract. However, this transaction process is still bumpy and ill-understood. The independent regulator is positioned between the legislative, executive and judiciary on the one hand and the market&consumer on the other.

The theme of the forthcoming seminar will revolve around various aspects of energy regulation, regulatory convergence across the energy sector, the role of government in the emerging network, issues related to energy security, harnessing renewable energy sources, new and alternative energy and likewise.

UNI