The Ministry of Power needs to make it mandatory with a provision of penal measures to ensure the implementation of RPOs' directive, Greenpeace said in its latest assessment report on Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) titled 'Powering Ahead on Renewables: Leaders and Laggards', which was released on Monday.
The report ranks performance of all the states on renewable energy supply.
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Karnataka achieved 122 per cent of its target and was fourth among the seven states that achieved its RPO target. In all, of the 29 states, 22 failed to meet their RPO targets, which lead to a loss of over 25 per cent electricity that was expected to be generated from renewable energy sources in 2012. The state had an energy deficit of 893 million units in 2012.
The north eastern states of Meghalaya and Nagaland, the hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the southern coastal state of Tamil Nadu have clearly taken the lead in not only meeting their RPO targets but also generating over and above the targets.
RPO framework in its present form has failed to deliver its mandate and many powerful states including national capital Delhi have made a mockery of the present framework. The Ministry of Power needs to make it mandatory with a provision of penal measures to ensure the implementation of RPOs directive.
Disappointingly, heavy energy consumer and a resourceful Union Territory like Delhi that could have set an example, is a straggler in terms of fulfiling its obligation.
Despite a good potential for solar, the National Capital fared amongst the worst with not even 1 per cent achievement. Regulators failed to penalise or implement the directives of RPO in Delhi and in other key states like Maharashtra and Punjab which fell short by about 50 per cent.
Manish Ram, 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. Karnataka displayed astuteness by adopting the energy of the future and becoming a driving force in its support. On the other hand, Delhi as the national capital has set the trend in the reverse direction."
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 per cent, which translates into nearly 14,268 million units of electricity from renewable energy projects.