Isra-Mart srl:Realising low carbon infrastructure dream

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IDFC report puts forth an assortment of diverse solutions

India would need major policy and regulatory changes including standards, taxation of pollution and tailored incentives to ensure infrastructure development follows a low carbon route.

These are among the many proposals put forward in the India Infrastructure Report (IIR) 2010, released by Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) on October 20, in New Delhi. The report is ninth in the annual IIR series published by IDFC’s 3-i network, a collaborative effort with Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K).

A compilation of 27 papers by various authors, the report primarily focuses on how solutions available at hand, can move ideas from the drawing board to execution. It examines five areas – cleaner and efficient energy, rural infrastructure, urban and rural transport planning, legal frameworks and financial support.

The distinctive feature of the report is that it primarily focuses on domestic resources and capabilities including financing.

In doing so, it perhaps sends a subtle message that India’s policy enthusiasts are moving beyond global climate deals to address the dual challenges of infrastructure development and taking on climate change.

For achieving energy efficiency in the electricity sector, Pramod Deo, chairman and Vijay Deshpande, advisor, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in their paper urged the power regulators to take up the challenge. The duo noted that average efficiency of India’s coal-based power plants is 27 per cent, among the lowest in the world – compared to a world average of 34 per cent. “As coal will continue to be a mainstay,” Deo said, “stringent norms for higher efficiency designs are being enforced for upcoming power plants.” The duo further claimed that management of electricity demand has not been effective as envisaged. “Part funding

for new demand side management techniques of high-voltage transmission networks and smart grids needs to come from consumers of utilities in the form of surcharges,” they noted in the report.

While discussing industrial energy use, another paper decried the lack of public data as a major drawback to plan any regulatory programmes. As regards to renewable energy, a paper found that many states have failed to comply with Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (RPO) norms. Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) is a new complementary tool to RPO. Anoop Singh of IIT-K, highlighted “REC ignores the non-grid connected power generation installations, generally found in remote and rural areas”. Alan Rosling, an entrepreneur, lamented that a recent abrupt rule of limiting five megawatt per applicant in bidding under national solar mission is already causing investor fears.