In the backdrop of a persistent power crisis and raging coal scam, Greenpeace on Monday released its assessment report on Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) titled “Powering Ahead on Renewables: leaders and laggards”, which ranks performance of all the States on renewable energy supply and calls for revision of RPO mechanism based on equity principle.
Madhya Pradesh managed to achieve just 33 per cent of its RPO target. The State suffered an energy deficit of 7942 million units in 2012. In all, out of 29 States, 22 failed to meet their RPO targets which lead to loss of more than 25% electricity that was expected to be generated from renewable energy sources in 2012.
Abhishek Pratap, senior energy campaigner, Greenpeace India said, “This report is an indictment of the whole policy framework around renewables and the dismissive attitude of the government towards it. RPO mechanism could have been a tool to bridge the demand-supply gap in the energy sector across the country. But the toothless mechanism combined with unambitious targets has failed to give any impetus to renewables in India. Madhya Pradesh has no political will or interest to adopt clean energy vis-à-vis dirty coal.” The report, a joint effort of Greenpeace and Infraline Energy, highlights the inconsistency between national renewable energy targets set by National Action Plan on Climate Change and the RPO targets fixed by State electricity regulators. The overall cumulative targets set by various State regulators is 5.44 per cent, whereas the national target is set at 7 per cent resulting in a deficit of 1.56%, which translates into nearly 14,268 million units of electricity from renewable energy projects. “The differential RPO targets derived for each State in the report are based on current and projected installed capacity of renewable energy, existing consumer profile, the state’s fiscal deficit, and state Gross Domestic Product. The report recommends the same criteria be used for setting new RPO targets that are ambitious, equitable and viable but mandatory for every state,” said Rohit Khatri, energy researcher, Infraline Energy.