DECENTRALISATION OF POWER

Power generation and transmission models that are local and self-sustaining can increase access to energy in the future

- KOSHY CHERAIL

AVAILABILITY AND access to uninterrupted and reliable energy sources is a prerequisite to enable an equitable and just development of communities, nations, and regions at large. Countries that have clear goals of raising the socio-economic conditions of their population have prioritised access to energy above other development goals. Construction and operation of power plants, as well as ensuring a steady supply of fuel of consistent quality, is a time-consuming and capital-intensive process. Governments have circumvented this barrier by building up interstate or trans-border transmission and distribution networks with neighbouring nations to meet their internal power demands.

Today, regional and cross-border power purchase agreements are a common means to bridge the power deficit and are practiced globally. There is definitely a progressive global approach towards building more inclusive and cooperative relationships for sharing resources.

In the context of climate change, accessibility of electricity has become a two-dimensional tool for measuring a community or region’s progress. The first dimension is to determine the percentage of the population having access to electricity along with per capita consumption and its year-on-year growth; while the second dimension pertains to analysing the means used to generate the electricity that is delivered—whether the source of energy generation is a polluting and fast-depleting fossil fuel or the vastly untapped non-polluting, environmentally benign renewable energy (RE).

The first dimension has seen exceptional achievements in the majority of Asian and African countries in the last five decades. While the second determinant has garnered the attention of policymakers in countries globally.

TRANSITION PROMISES