To Keep The Lights On, India’s Power Sector Needs Climate-Resilient Grids
- ByAyushi Ray | August 30, 2021
To keep the lights on, India’s power sector needs climate-resilient grids as said in a report by Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published on August 9. The report also explains how climate systems have changed faster than previously predicted, and warns against severe cyclones, heat waves and erratic rainfall events in South Asia, such as Cyclone Tauktae that hit India’s west coast this May, and the Mumbai deluge in July. In the power sector, such events affect the entire value chain of grid infrastructure — from generating plants to transmission lines and end-consumer distribution. On the generation side, climate events impede the supply of raw materials, while disturbances in the supply chain affect their availability. Droughts, for instance, could impact water resources essential for electricity generation.
On the distribution side, there are security and reliability issues where infrastructure is weak and poorly maintained as climate events can exacerbate these issues. Flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district damaged the under-construction Tapovan-Vishnugad NTPC Hydro Power Project on the river Dhauli Ganga, and the storm in Barmer and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan uprooted 1,100 electricity poles blacking out 100-125 villages and hamlets for days. When Cyclone Tauktae was about to hit amid the second wave of COVID-19, Gujarat managed electricity outages by ensuring backups at hospitals and deploying teams to tackle the operational issues. Yet nearly 450 villages did not have electricity for over a week.
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