It has not passed more than a year after the agreement on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was carried out at the UN General Assembly. SDGs comprise a set of 17 goals with the intention to dramatically improve lives across the world by 2030. SDG7 is one of the major goal that aims to ensure global access to affordable, sustainable, reliable and modern energy. In fact, it could be considered a necessity for meeting all of the SDGs.
Developing national priorities in alignment with the SDGs is crucial as mainstreaming SDG7 would vary across countries. Here, two critical indicators are of significance—access to electricity and cleaner cooking options for all.
The advancement made towards accomplishment of SDG7 in India appears noteworthy with electricity having been delivered to 97 per cent of the villages. The launching of the Ujjwala scheme by the government is another initiative taken to provide LPG to 50 million underprivileged households. However, a deeper analysis raises concerns.
The yearly growth rate of rural households, taking into account the decadal population growth, is estimated at approximately 2 per cent, while the number of households being electrified are increasing at an average annual rate of around 3 per cent. Around 58 million un-electrified households are still there, as estimated by the government, which will be covered under the scheme ‘Power for All’ by 2019
However, the Grameen Vidyutikaran (GARV) data gives a different perception and seems to suggest that the yearly household growth since the last 2011 census has not been looked at. Taking into account the annual growth, it is found that increase in the number of un-electric households is almost 23 per cent. This shows that the household electrification are not being carried out at a desired pace.
In Madhya Pradesh, the access rate dropped from 62 per cent in 2001 to around 57 per cent in 2016 according to the Census and GARV data for States. A mere 1 per cent rise in household electrification was observed in Assam from 2001 to 2016, and is now at 35 per cent. West Bengal, On the contrary registered a big growth from 20 per cent in 2001 to 95 per cent in 2016.
The main concern is to find the way to connecting and sustaining un-electrified households in the states which are lagging behind. A grid infrastructure for these households may already be present in the villages they are situated. Most of the times, government records do not provide a true picture of the social structure. Several unelectrified hamlets in the electrified main village are shown as electrified. There is a need to identify such habitations and cover them under government schemes or through renewable energy-based mini-grids engaging the private sector also and adequately incentivising them for this.
Although the pace of village electrification has slightly increased, the intensification has been comparatively slow. There is a marginal difference in the financial status of above poverty line households and below poverty line households, who are provided free connections, in most villages. The households that are interested for electrification but lack the financial means should be helped by financing their wiring, metering and connection costs to bridge this gap. Selecting such households for subsidised connection by using the deprivation framework of the socio-economic and caste census could be another alternative.
Ensuring access to clean cooking options is another important aspect of SDG7. TERI studies suggest that fuel stacking is a major issue in most villages, though considerable progress has been made under Ujjwala scheme.
Most families prefer LPG for emergency cooking only instead of using for cooking their major meals. Higher expenses incurred for using commercial fuels could be one such reason. A family of 5–6 members availing the subsidy of an LPG cylinder is expected to spend a monthly amount of around `500 to cook their meals. According to the last SECC, nearly three-quarters of the rural households earn `5,000 or less, and an expenditure of more than 10 per cent of their total income on fuel will bring them under energy-poverty. Thus, in addition to providing rural households with cleaner fuels to reduce household air pollution, it is equally important to ensure a substantial increase in rural income so that part of the added income of such households is used to meet clean energy requirements.
The use of electric induction cook stoves as complementary to LPG should also be promoted. It has almost the same cost and fuel expenditure as in case of LPG. The usage of induction cook stoves will ensure optimum possible use of the electricity infrastructure being created.
At present, most of the power plants are not running to their full capacity. Thus, higher plant load factor and better revenue sustainability for DISCOMs could be achieved through the electrification of the cooking energy demand which will also lead to preventing the cost towards creating a supply chain for cooking fuel. The promotion of star-rated energy-efficient cook stoves with lower electricity consumption, higher efficiency and no emission of harmful pollutants will be another feasible rural solution towards achieving SDG7