‘MSMEs drain much of the country’s energy demand’

Kandeh K Yumkella is the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All as well as the CEO of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative. In this role, he is responsible for planning and mobilising action towards a sustainable energy future by engaging with the leadership of various stakeholders in Governments, businesses, academia and civil society.

Yumkella says in India, the micro, small and medium enterprises sector is a big drain as far as energy is concerned. These units account for over 40 per cent of the total energy requirement of the country, and hence this issue needs urgent attention of authorities concerned, in an exclusive interview with BusinessLine . Excerpts:

In which area does India need to focus to ensure energy security?

Renewable energy is one that India can move aggressively on. India must have a clear vision for developing and deploying renewable energy technology to give energy access to the remaining 300 million people that do not have electricity.

At the same time, I believe and am convinced that India, with good private-public sector partnership models and Government-supported research programmes, can drive down the cost of renewable energy technology, as, cheaper the technology, better the adoption.

Is India sufficiently sensitive about its role and responsibility towards new-age technology in renewable energy? What would be the suggestion for addressing energy issues?

With the new Government, energy security is on top of the agenda now. We are very impressed with Prime Minister Modi’s proposal to end energy poverty in India within a decade.

If executed well, it will make India a huge marketing opportunity and a wonderful destination for various international agencies to crowd in investments for joint research. It will be a win-win arrangement.

We as a global organisation want to work with the Indian Government to bring in researchers from other parts of the world who work on renewable energy systems to come up with technology to reduce energy generation and distribution cost, because cheaper the technology, faster the penetration.

Considering that over two-thirds of the houses and offices that India would need by 2025 is yet to be built, we can plan and design smart, innovative, energy-efficient buildings, new integrated energy systems with renewable technology to meet energy demand.

What are the major issues India needs to address on a war footing?

Nobody consumes as much energy as the North Americans. In America, the per capita energy consumption is around 5,000 kW.

In Europe it is around 2,500 kW. But in India it is way below at less than 1000 kW – may be because of lack of generation capacity and connectivity.

Reliability is another big issue. You do not have electricity when you need it. It can cripple the competitiveness of the country. So, the question now is how to scale up generation and distribution efficiency.

Government and financial institutions should come forward to fund installation of renewable energy systems, encouraging users to pay as they save.

One of the biggest problems in India I see is that millions of small and medium enterprises are using machines that are energy guzzlers. Their energy demand is over 40 per cent of the total demand.

Most of the equipment is more than 20 years old. How can we support their energy audits, and advise these SMEs to improve energy efficiency of their lathe machines, boilers and other systems is what we should plan and do.

We on our part joined the Government of Gujarat and the Union Government for this purpose – to engage authorities concerned in paring generation and distribution losses, efficient management of energy needs and consumption.

Given the pool of intellects available in India, it is an opportunity to innovate smart technologies.

Foreign companies would want to do joint venture business in India in this regard. We see that very soon the cost of alternative energy will drop and will be accessible to all.

Which country does India have to learn a lot of from?

I think it will be a group of countries. That is what China is doing. The country is learning a lot from Denmark. India too can learn from Denmark in terms of energy efficiency.

Denmark has doubled its GDP in the last 20 years and at the same time, surprisingly, has brought down its energy requirement by 40 per cent.

Besides wind energy, the country has technologies that harvest waste heat too cool their workplaces and homes. Korea is another good example.

It took just 30 years to achieve industrialisation for which most of the other countries in the world took 50 years. Now it has set a target to have their innovative green energy technologies contributing 10 per cent of the country’s GDP in the next 20 years. Similarly, India too should fix a target and work towards that. If India could do that, this can be India’s century.

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