Aim to save 200 bn units of electricity in five years: Goyal

The government aims to bring down transmission losses to save 200 billion units, or 10 percent of the power consumption achieved, in the next five years, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

"As we increase our energy consumption from one trillion units to 2 trillion units, we will be looking at a saving of 200 billion units by bringing down transmission losses," Goyal said at a conference here on India's energy outlook, jointly organised by the Paris-based International Energy Agency and NITI Aayog, with support from energy think-tank TERI.

Goyal, who is also the minister of new and renewable energy, said the government also plans to scale up the contribution of renewable energy.

"We are looking at scaling up share of renewable energy to 15 percent of 2 trillion units envisaged in the next five years," he said.

"As many as 60 billion units of renewable energy were produced last year. The effort is to scale it up to 300 billion units in the next 6-7 years, possibly advanced to five years," Goyal added.

Pointing out one-fourth of the country's population still does not have access to electricity, he said that India is one of the lowest per capita carbon emitters in the world.

"The 'polluters pay' principle must be implemented. Our government has already increased the cess on coal. We need to take up an affirmative agenda on energy so that our future generations inherit a cleaner and greener future," said Goyal, who also holds the coal portfolio.

--Indo-Asian News service

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