Indian states unable to meet renewable purchase obligation targets

Failure led to 25% loss in electricity from renewable energy sources in 2012.

Environmental organization Greenpeace said 22 out of 29 states in India failed to meet their renewable purchase obligation targets. The national capital, Delhi, has stood out as worst state in this respect since it has virtually no renewable energy in its supply chain.

Other states at the bottom are Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

On the other hand, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Uttarakhand are the top-five high-performing states in meeting their respective RPO targets.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change in 2008 provides for a renewable energy injection of 5% into the national grid for 2009 until 2012 and an annual increase of 1% until the target of 15% is reached by 2020.

Greenpeace said India’s domestic power demand in 2012 was 918 billion units and is expected to reach 1640 billion units by 2020 at 9.8% annual growth. The peak power demand will raise almost the double of current demand in next eight years. As on October 2012, India has a total installed capacity of 209.28 GW.