The majority of the problems and opportunities that modern civilization faces are defined by the availability of energy. Since reliable and inexpensive energy services are necessary for daily living and are seen as a necessary first step toward a better quality of life and equitable development, universal access to energy is crucial.

Modern energy services are universally acknowledged to be critical for human well-being, essential for the economic success of any nation, and essential for the supply of clean water, sanitation, healthcare, and other valuable energy services. It is possible to transform lives and economies by achieving universal access to renewable energy.

Understanding the precise targets listed below may be helpful in placing the conversation in context:

• Boost international cooperation to make it easier to access clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and advanced and cleaner fossil fuel technology.
   
• Ensure that everyone has access to affordable, dependable, and modern energy services.
   
• Substantially raise the proportion of renewable energy in the world's energy mix.
   
• The rate of increase in energy efficiency will double.

The entire framework places a strong emphasis on a few key elements that are essential to comprehending the feasibility of initiating energy transitions that have the ability to drastically alter lives and economies.

These problems can be broadly grouped into the following categories:

• Difficulties in gaining access to modern energy services;
• Increasing the affordability and dependability of these services;
• Increasing the proportion of renewable energy in the primary energy mix;
• enhancing technology penetration and exchange, particularly with regard to access to clean energy research; and
• finally, concentrating on increasing energy efficiency throughout the entire energy value chain.

Problems and Difficulties
India's economy experienced tremendous growth during the 1990s and 2000s as it moved from an agrarian to an industrial and service-based economy, changing the nation's energy requirements in the process. Two notable patterns have emerged as a result of this: an increase in the amount of energy consumed per unit of economic production and an ongoing gap between supply and demand for energy. The demands of economic growth, which are thought to be necessary to end pervasive poverty and achieve real income growth, call for energy in a variety of forms and at competitive rates.

We continue to struggle as a nation to ensure that everyone has access to many useful kinds of energy while also maintaining affordable pricing free of massively distorting subsidies. A sizable portion of the population still lacks access to energy despite the recent dramatic decoupling of energy and economic growth, which points to increased efficiency gains.

In addition, there may be nonetheless a sizable dependence on imported electricity (oil, in particular). Such an outside dependence increases questions round India's long-time period electricity security. Further, the charge of diffusion and deployment of rising new renewable electricity technology has been slow.

Poor public fitness results persist attributable to the extraction and use of fossil electricity and the ensuing human publicity to nearby air pollution and accelerated human publicity to indoor air pollution because of a higher use of biomass for residential electricity use. Poor fitness results also are found because of the buildup of black carbon within side the atmosphere, frequently because of inefficient electricity conversion procedures at the end-use side.

It is fairly known that assembly the fundamental wishes of get admission to sustainable electricity to the hundreds of thousands of Indians at the same time as on the equal time addressing and responding to worldwide and country wide weather dreams goes to be a key electricity coverage assignment within side the current future. There is a huge convergence at the foremost steps earlier than the Indian electricity sector, in step with accomplishing the wider time table highlighted above.

These consist of improving electricity deliver and enhancing electricity security, focussing on guidelines and programmes that assist lessen economic system-huge electricity intensity, pricing moderately to assist transition from a fossil-primarily based totally economic system to a purifier country wide electricity profile, and making sure most profits are performed thru electricity performance upgrades through a mixture of responses, technology, conduct and price.

According to the India Energy Outlook report, India's energy demand has almost quadrupled since 2000, increasing the country's share of world demand to 5.7% in 2013 from 4.4% at the turn of the century. Although the increase in energy demand that fuels economic growth has been significant, this percentage is still much below India's near 18% current share of the world's population, a sign of possible future growth.

We can see that the energy consumption will likely rise significantly in line with the economic growth projections by looking at some of the most popular energy indicators. Reaching even the lower limits of the worldwide average values results in significant energy demand and a major difficulty for India's public policy is the supply imperative.

Energy demand in India, expressed on a per capita basis, has increased by 46% since 2000 but is still only about one third of the global average. We detect a faster rate of energy-economy decoupling despite the fact that the demand for energy has nearly doubled since 2000. The residential sector's increasing adoption of modern energy, the rising service sector's high energy consumption standards, and public policies like that are specifically focused on enhancing end-use energy efficiency all contribute to this. India's energy intensity2 has decreased over time, and more fall is anticipated.

An Overview
Especially in the last 20�30 years, the government has been increasingly involved in the energy sector. The majority of these remedies have focused on regulating the energy market through "hard" and "soft" policy changes. The provision of a cost-effective energy supply is the key goal that guides the landscape of energy sector programmes and policies. It must be acknowledged that the demand sector has primarily reaped the benefits of economic growth (or cost effectiveness).

Poor quality energy infrastructure is a major problem for the energy supply business. It is nice to see so many Innovations that have become established in the Indian energy policy field, both market- and non-market-based. It's also crucial to realise that the majority of these developments were made possible by legislative frameworks that allowed for the modification of transaction regulations, as well as by the Government of India's open-minded approach to the technology market.

According to the Integrated Energy Policy (GOI, 2006), it has also become more and more clear that, when it comes to problems with energy supply and demand, emerging market-based initiatives offer the greatest solution. Promoting competitive energy markets, setting reasonable prices, allocating resources effectively (through regulation), enhancing efficiency, and enacting management reforms that establish a mechanism to carry out efficiency improvements and encourage accountability are some interventions that have won the approval of policymakers.

Whatever the case, the ideal course of action requires further in depth research and thought. Recognizing that the energy sector is characterised by numerous stakeholders and a debatable relationship between the state and the centre is vital.

Over the past few decades, a large number of policy proposals, laws, and acts have been passed or introduced. While some have a direct impact on the energy sector, others have had a more indirect impact. These laws, regulations, and other laws have focused either narrowly on the full value chain of the energy sector, or more broadly on a specific environmental sector, such as water or air.

For instance, the Integrated Energy Policy Plan is the most recent policy statement adopted by the Government of India. The Government of India approved this policy plan in 2009, and it broadly connects the energy sector to the objectives of sustainable development. The IEP established the framework for securing the nation's fuel demand with respect to various substitute to take advantage of any production-consumption synergy, fuels are used in both production and alternative technologies.

It must be emphasised once more that in the Indian context, technology and its accessibility have always played a significant role in determining energy policy. In order to maximise energy supply options, facilitate demand side management/transition3, and accomplish goals of tolerable energy conservation, the public policy emphasis has been biased toward acquiring, installing, and disseminating energy technologies.

Functioning of the Energy Sector

The relationship between economic growth, energy use, and carbon emissions is reasonably decoupled. We notice that the rate of carbon decoupling has been substantially higher in comparison to energy decoupling while investigating the characteristics of energy and carbon decoupling. The low base of carbon emissions and the substantial use of non-commercial biomass by the population of the nation may help to explain this.

On the other hand, we are not certain at this time that the energy and carbon decoupling are occurring simultaneously. It is clear that there are enormous benefits to creating, implementing, and controlling combined emission-energy pathways, necessitating a major reevaluation of the joint market's operational performance.

However, the focus of the national policy response is mainly on increasing energy efficiency without using the potential for attaining climate gains as well. This has come to light as a critical issue that could prevent the energy sector agenda from being reframed.

Interesting conclusions are drawn from the nation's energy and carbon decomposition analyses. Overall, income growth, which is closely tied to urbanisation and rates of economic growth, is what is essentially driving India's emissions trajectory. The GDP's energy intensity has a greater impact on this trajectory than its carbon intensity does.

In the recent past, the high rate of carbon intensity of the energy system has been a crucial component driving India's trajectory increase in GHG emissions. Present and future policies should be heavily focused on low-carbon growth, as the national policy framework has correctly noted, and within this context, experimenting with joint energy and carbon markets could show to be a game changer.

The current share of renewable energy is a tiny portion of the total primary energy supply of the country, despite the urgent need to concentrate on its development. Given that the full non-commercial biomass is sustainably fed to the energy system, the situation slightly improves. Although the recent national policy focus has been positive, there are still significant gaps in the renewable energy sector that may need to be remedied.

The energy use in the commercial, transportation, and industrial sectors has increased significantly. This is a symptom of the Indian economy's structural transformation and the country's rising urbanisation, a trend that is likely to persist. Residential energy use may also increase, in part due to greater access to energy and the purchase of energy-intensive assets like air conditioners.

To develop a new policy framework that assists in decoupling energy and service demand, particularly in the transportation sector, it is essential to pinpoint the elements responsible for such energy demand shifts within a sophisticated understanding of the underlying policy and regulatory landscape. The industry sector is making considerable progress, in part because of a focused effort to enhance energy efficiency and in part because of a decrease in demand brought on by improved processes.

Energy Access and Development

Development and wealth depend heavily on energy. Access to affordable and dependable energy services is essential in emerging nations for eradicating poverty, boosting productivity, boosting competitiveness, and fostering economic progress. Since it enables access to clean water, sanitization, and healthcare as well as a host of other advantages like dependable and efficient lighting, heating, transportation, and other necessary services, having access to reliable and clean energy sources is crucial for people and the development of societies as a whole.

We failed to create a framework for synergistic co-benefits that is well-articulated and supported by data when developing national energy strategies. Such synergistic frameworks assist in prioritising resource allocation and ensure the feasibility of aligning numerous markets in the context of restricted financial resources.

Regulations for Energy Efficiency

Since independence, the power sector has experienced notable expansion. However, due to shortcomings in generation, transmission, and distribution, the country is currently experiencing significant energy peaking and shortages. This is because demand for power has been outpacing growth in supply. Unsustainable financial and performance results have been produced as a result of extremely high levels of technical and commercial losses and a lack of a commercial approach to managing utilities.

One of the main causes of the low quality of supply, which includes large transit losses, has been insufficient distribution networks. It will be necessary to provide appropriate and efficient service to the nation's widely dispersed and quickly rising electrical demand network.

We'll need to work together to address the difficulties that the Especially in the spirit of accomplishing the more general goals of the Electrical Act, the National Energy Frameworks and Policies, the electricity sector imposes on us. The majority of these issues are connected to enhancing the technical and financial performance of power utilities, generally in the context of increasing energy efficiencies through various procedures and value chain segments for power utilities.

Institutional arrangements and governance

Five separate ministries as well as other government committees and agencies are each responsible for different aspects of policy development and execution in the energy sector. When state and federal governments share duties and responsibilities, the landscape of policy and implementation becomes even more convoluted.

Synergistic reforms are necessary for broader sector gains because different ministries and departments are responsible for developing and implementing energy policy. For instance, the lack of synergy in the energy and coal sector reforms has partially been a problem with the jurisdiction of the center-state.

In the power sector's institutional and governance framework, there are also significant contradictions. For instance, the Ministry of Power is responsible for long-term planning for the power industry, policy creation, allocating investment priorities, and overseeing the execution of laws pertaining to thermal and hydroelectric generation, transmission, and distribution.

It communicates with the State Electricity Boards, the private sector, and the federal government. The Energy Conservation Law of 2001 established the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, a legislative entity within the Ministry of Power, to coordinate energy efficiency and conservation policies and programmes. All power-related central and interstate activities must be regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. Its duties include controlling energy trading, governing interstate transmission and pricing, producing central utility tariffs, and controlling transmission lines.

Each state's State Electricity Regulatory Commissions handle licencing, pricing, and competitive problems. With cities being the primary locations for the consumption of energy due to rising urbanisation, it may be possible to revisit the 74th Constitutional Amendment and include power generation and distribution under the purview of local governments. This could be crucial for ensuring the desired synergistic transitions in energy and climate.

Pricing and Governance

The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act's definition of city level administration in India does not specifically permit that body to make decisions on matters relating to energy, such as the production and distribution of power, fuel consumption regulations, and energy/electricity rates. Cities are only partially able to manage the flow of energy because they lack the legal authority to provide options for its form. Additionally, it has no power over determining the scope, structure, and tools of the policies that are finalised at the state level.

In the context of enhancing universal access and subsequently assuring quality and dependability of the energy supply, pricing and governance issues may be crucial. Although local governments have a dismal track record of adhering to marginal cost principles when it comes to utility pricing, addressing the environment would be most important in ensuring coverage for everyone.

The Transition to Sustainable Energy Framework
Certain significant difficulties that the Indian energy sector presents could also present significant opportunity. Below is a summary of these.

Security of Energy

1. Increased domestic coal, oil, gas, and other energy source production.
2. A stable and alluring policy regime to ensure significant private investment, including foreign investment in oil and natural gas blocks.
3. Investments in energy assets abroad, particularly for coal, oil, and gas, and uranium, should be increased.
4. Sufficient storage facilities and fuel substitution plans must be developed to handle any potential disruption in oil supplies.

Long-term and immediate challenges

1. To address the widening energy supply-demand gap and energy-related environmental externalities, particularly in light of long-term environmental concerns like climate change.
    
2. It is necessary to establish integrated macroeconomic energy and environmental paths that specifically address issues with investment needs and their availability, energy supply, technology, R&D and transfer issues, local and global environmental implications, and institutional requirements.
    
3. A major worry is the influence different energy generating methods have on the environment. Therefore, the task will be to apply increased recovery techniques, assure optimal exploitation of the available fossil energy resources, and move the emphasis to renewable sources.

Greater Development and Use of Renewable Energy

1. Creating transmission infrastructure to transport renewable energy power from remote locations, making low-cost funds available (especially for off-grid applications), developing sustainable business models for decentralised renewable energy projects, and encouraging linked rural entrepreneurship and distributed service companies/employment/skill markets are some of the barriers that will need priority action.
    
2. Rapidly expanding inclusive off-grid programmes with the option to make changes to the policy frameworks that might result in improved outcomes.
    
3. There is a need to reduce worries about the rate of technological advancement, the availability of land, and the transmission of new technologies.
    
4. Despite having a high potential to address the growing energy crisis and emissions, clean energy options like wind, nuclear, and hydro face a number of socio environmental challenges, including the building of dams, flooding of certain areas, harm to the ecological system, and the resettling and rehabilitation of impacted populations. We must try to build a balanced development model that does not preclude us from using a potential renewable source that might be economically viable and have substantial environmental advantages.

References:

• http://ieefa.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/
• http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/rep_intengy.pdf
• http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/11th/11_v1/11th_vol1.pdf
• http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/indnc2.pdf
• http://planningcommission.gov.in/plans/planrel/12thplan/pdf/12fyp_vol1.pdf
• http://doi.org/https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/africaenergy-outlook.html
• https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7891Transforming%20Our%20World.Pdf