The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced five new partnerships, four of which are with the government. The announcement was made by USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia Jonathan Stivers who was in Delhi to represent the agency at the second US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.
"As part of the expansion of US-India bilateral cooperation, USAID will continue to support Ministries of power, new and renewable energy, and environment to help India transition to a high-performing, low-emission, energy-secure economy," Stivers said.
First among these new partnerships is USAID's commitment to work with the Bangalore power utility BESCOM and US-based company Innovari to launch the first grid integration pilot under the "Greening the Grid" (GTG) initiative.
GTG is a joint initiative of USAID and the Power Ministry to strengthen India's power grid to manage large-scale integration of renewable energy.
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India aims to provide 24/7 power to all Indian households by 2020 by adding and integrating 175 gigawatts of renewable energy into the national grid.
"During the first phase of this programme, USAID and MNRE supported the states of Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh to introduce appropriate net-metering policies and regulations and provided technical assistance to the state distribution utilities implementing solar rooftop programs.
USAID also announced a partnership with the power
Ministry's public sector energy efficiency company, Energy Efficiency Services Limited, to transform India's markets for super-efficient air-conditioners.
At present, less than five per cent of households have air-conditioners in India, but with rising demand for cooling and better comfort, the growth rate of air-conditioner sales is expected to accelerate to 30 per cent per annum over the next five years.
The partnership is aimed at piloting a market instrument designed to reduce costs for industrial plants to comply with regulatory limits on emissions and to provide incentives encouraging emission reductions.
The first pilot under this partnership will be tested in Gujarat, the statement said.
It added that during the US-India Joint Working Group on Combating Climate Change, USAID announced its collaboration with the Forest Survey of India (FSI) under the Environment Ministry to strengthen the latter's capacity to better predict forest fires, use high-resolution satellite imagery for forest resource assessment and develop protocols for strengthening forest inventory.