India To Be 3rd Largest Electricity Consumer By 2050: IEA Report
Photo credit Bihar State Power Transmission
IEA Report Says India Will Become Third Largest Electricity Consumer
By Sanjay Singh
New Delhi, October 17: The World Energy Outlook report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) this week states that India is all set to become the third-largest electricity consumer in the world by 2050 because of over 4% growth in demand a year in all emerging scenarios.
This report also factors in other economic and growth indicators as well as India looks to become a developed economy by 2047 with daily variability of electricity demand averaged 15% in 2023 and is set to almost triple by 2050. Cooling will become the most important driver of daily variability in demand, though higher levels of appliance ownership and Electric Vehicles are set to affect it as well.
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However, the electricity demand in China and the US will be higher than India in 2050. The IEA said that growth will be led by demand for air-conditioning in India as more people will be able to afford it due to rising incomes. The same pattern is likely to prevail in all emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). Electricity demand growth in EMDEs will be largely due to the affordability of home appliances as incomes rise and an increase in industrial activity, the IEA said.
The report’s projections based on today’s policy settings indicate that the world is set to enter a new energy market context in the coming years, marked by continued geopolitical hazards but also by a relatively abundant supply of multiple fuels and technologies.
This includes an overhang of oil and Liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply coming into view during the second half of the 2020s, alongside a large surfeit of manufacturing capacity for some key clean energy technologies, notably solar PV and batteries, said the IEA.
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“We’ve witnessed the Age of Coal and the Age of Oil – and we’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity,” the agency said. This will define the global energy system going forward and increasingly be based on clean sources of electricity, it added.
In India, coal is set to retain a strong position in the energy mix over the next decades. Nearly 60 GW of coal-fired capacity will be added net of retirements by 2030, and electricity generation from coal will rise by over 15%.
Coal has been playing a prominent role in meeting energy demand in industry, providing 40% of its energy needs in 2023, by 2035, the consumption of coal in industry would have grown by 50%, with its share in total industry demand remaining at similar levels as today, according to the IEA report.
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