Energy crisis

Black-out Era in the Offing

BY Rohit Kumar

ne of the most-often
quoted stories of the
21st century is the
emergence of India and China on
the global economy landscape.
These emerging economies have
provided much required calmness
amid global economic turbulence.
However, the flip side of the
story is their growing appetite
for energy and commodities.
India is the 4th largest economy
in the world and it is a home for
one-sixth of total population of
the world. At this pace of growth
in the economy and subsequent
increase in purchasing power, the
energy needs of a vast population
and growing industry can be quite
demanding for policy-makers.
The consumption of oil and its
products in India itself is 2,438,000
barrels per day which exceeds 125
million metric tonnes per year.
Despite the vast and diverse
geography of India, the oil
reserves is very less.75% of the
total oil is imported from the oil
rich countries. Oil and gas account
for 40% of the total energy needs.
53% of the energy needs are
fulfilled by coal. Only 7% of the
total energy needs are fulfilled
by alternative sources of energy.
Statistics reveals that a large part
of energy needs are dependent
on oil. Other sectors of energy
production are already working
to their maximum limit. About
67% of the total vehicles use petrol
in one or other form as fuel in
vehicles, cooking gas is produced
from oil, generators make use of
oil for electricity and so on........
We all know the importance of
fuel. Now the question arises
as to what will happen on the
consumption of these resources?
According to a report, Indian
oil reserves will be consumed
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INDIAN CURRENTS 01 - 07 october 2012

completely in the coming 10 years.

This is a big concern that has to be
brought in limelight. India is a
developing nation and it is running
in the marathon of converting the
nation into a developed country.
We cant afford the energy crisis
as it will halt the development of
our nation. What kind of impact
an energy crisis can create is
visible through a recent incident
of Northern grid failure, which
resulted in the stalling of Railways
and Metros. The crisis affected
about 620 million people. The
scale of a crisis worse than this
can easily be imaginable after 10
years when the nation might be
on the verge of attaining its goal
of a developed nation and there
we are devoid of fuels! India is a
coal-rich nation and hydro power
is a developed concept in India.
But even then, are we actually
ready to fill this void of oil after
those years? We definitely need
some alternatives and it can be the
renewable sources of energy. But
the energy production through
renewable sources is just 1% of
total energy production, most of
them are bio-gas plants located in
remote areas. The technological
concept of solar and wind
production is amateur in India.
India has got ample of solar
and wind energy but it is
getting wasted just because of
absence of technology. There are
20 solar power and five wind
power stations in India and the
production from these sources
has already been cleared through
statistics. Also India is one of
the major garbage producing
countries and even this dump is
not properly utilized. We use this
garbage in making fertilizers and
then most of them is burned to
pollute the environment.
Apart from that if we talk
about the nuclear energy in India,
although thorium is in profuse

What kind of impact an

energy crisis can create
is visible through the
recent incident of
Northern Grid failure,
which resulted in half
the country coming to
a halt >>>

quantity but uranium has to be

imported. Although the deal
has been signed with the US for
equipments and setting up nuclear
power plants, the implementation
of these projects needs a huge
amount of money. Where the
nation is already facing economic
problems, this kind of expenditure
can shake the whole economy. A
whopping amount of money is
already spent on energy imports
and production but still the nation
faces the problem of power-cut.
The statistical analysis reveals
that we are not in a state of
high expenditures for bringing
sophisticated technologies and
moreover the state is prone to
disastrous power crisis in the near
future. There is a dire need of
focus on the energy management
in India. The government
should focus on bringing highly
sophisticated technologies to
India and the nation should be
capable enough to engineer these
technologies. Campaigns should
be organized to create awareness
among all classes of people.
All these steps are important
otherwise well be in a Black-out
Era soon. Energy is the backbone
of development of any nation
and the government needs to
start preparing for this situation
taking into consideration that this
development should not inflate
the economy and at same time its
absence should not halt it.