Power requirement to go up by 6.8 times in 50 years: Sukhatme

Electricity requirement in the country will increase up to 6.8 times in the next 50 years, said Former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, SP Sukhatme.

Speaking on 'Estimating India's Future Needs of Electricity' recently at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn), Sukhatme said, "In order to improve the standard of living in India, in the next 50 years, it will be necessary to increase the value of the mean annual per capita consumption of electricity from the present value of 800 to 900 kWh to around 4000 kWh. This need will correspond to an annual requirement of about 6800 tWh of electrical energy."

Emphasizing on the need for frugal use of electricity, Sukhatme said that days of plentiful and cheap energy are over. "When the population of the country stabilized at 1700 million after 50 years, the energy demand will increase by 6.8 times of what we produce today. Even if the population used energy frugally the demand will increase by 3.12 times. Installation of every megawatts of electricity costs between Rs 5-15 crore," he said.

Currently, India has installed capacity of producing around 250,000 Mw of electricity. Talking about high cost of harvesting renewable energy, Sukhatme said that fluctuation and intermittency in energy output from the renewable sources is the main challenge.

"Renewable sources of energy will become a significant contributor to energy needs and it will be then the issue of intermittency will be strongly felt. These are issues which no country has sorted out," Sukhatme said while pointing out that electricity and fresh water will be two big issues in the country in the future. "These two 'key words' will determine the future of the country," he added.