Energy Consumption In India And Tamil Nadu Environmental Sciences Essay

India is 7th largest country in world comes under Asian continent, containing 28 states and 7 union territories. India is a peninsular country surrounded by Bay of Bengal in East, Indian Ocean in South and Arabian Sea in West. The neighbouring countries are Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Burma, China and Sri Lanka

Electricity by type.gif

Above figure shows Energy produced in India from the period of 1990 to 2008. It’s seen that Energy produced from Thermal power constitutes nearly 70 %, and in this coal, lignite, oil, natural gas are the main resource. Remaining 22% is produced through Hydro power projects, approximately 5% from nuclear energy and remaining from Geothermal, Solar, Wind and Wastes, and it’s seen that India has showed its interest towards renewable energy resource only in this decade

Petroleum (Thousand barrels per day)

Total oil production 878.73

Consumption 2,980.00

Demand 2,101.27

Natural Gas (Billion Cubic feet)

Production 1365

Consumption 1811

Demand 446

Coal (Million short tons)

Production 568

Consumption 637

Demand 69

Electricity (Billion kWh)

Net Generation 761

Net Consumption 568

Amount of Carbon dioxide emission from fossil fuels alone accounts 1494.88 Million metric tonnes of CO2. Below table lists the amount of installed power production by region wise

North Region – 34,207.15 MW

Western Region – 37,099.86 MW

Southern region – 36,569.32 MW

Eastern Region -18,881.95 MW

Islands – 80.69 MW

As India being a huge country we are given our native state to discuss about Energy production and consumption which is Tamil Nadu located in Southern region of India. Tamil Nadu produces 10214 MW of energy and out of which 8348 MW is needed for Tamil Nadu, which has nearly 66 million populations. The main source of energy productions in Tamil Nadu are Thermal, Hydro, Wind, Biomass and Solar.

Out of which Wind Energy dominates the other source of energy productions. Wind power sector started its growth from 1990 and many Foreign wind energy started to boom due to attractive subsidies and incentives offer by the government for setting up their manufacturing plants. Wind Energy contributes 3545 MW to the state. The farms are located in Aralvoimozhi, Palghat, Sea Shore, Shengottah and Theni. In which Aralvoimozhi is the largest producer contributing nearly 35% of total wind power to state.

Secondly the most energy resource is Thermal power. In Tamil Nadu, there are 5 Thermal power plants which pump out energy. They are Ennore thermal power station (ETPS), North Chennai thermal power station (NCTPS), Mettur thermal power station (MTPS), Tuticorin thermal power station (TTPS) and one more major power station is Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) which is alone owned by the Central Government of India. Total Energy produced from Thermal plants is 3463 MW.

Thirdly Hydro Electric Power plants which produce 2390 MW. Tamil Nadu has many rivers flows into it from Western Ghats to Bay of Bengal. The water collected into many small dams and used for agriculture purpose during summer and at the same time these are used for energy production too. One of the biggest energy producers is Metter Dam. Finally we have Solar and Biomass which contributes 102MW and 609 MW respectively and rest of them are from wastes.

Out of 10214 MW, 5288 MW is produced by State, 1058 MW from private sectors and rest is contributed by Central government. Even though Tamil Nadu produces excess energy than its need, but the state has been suffering from lack of power every day. This is due policies which are framed by central government to share the produced energy with neighbouring states. Huge population cover which is 66 million out of which 11 million population is in Capital City , a bit more than the Sweden’s population, which could be the causes for energy demands and also Tamil Nadu is being one of the largest industrial state. So, it is obvious that energy demand raises and due to these effects, causes the state to use its all available resources. Change in seasonal rainfall has lead to less energy production from Hydro power plants. So, it’s been pushed to focus on energy production through non-conventional resources. India is being covered by three sides of coastal areas, its rich in Wind energy, Tidal waves and Solar Energy. Tamil Nadu has renewable energy grid power with installed capacity of 4790 MW which is nearly 32% of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board’s total grid capacity.

TEDA (Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency) was established in 1985 with following policies

To set up R&D

To promote use of Renewable energy and to implement projects

To promote energy conservation activities

To conserve resources & development on renewable source of energy

Activities done by TEDA towards sustainability development

Attracting investors through setting up demonstration wind farms , tax breaks

Conducting Awareness campaign to educate people about use of renewable energy and energy conservation.

Promoting renewable energy utilisation products like Solar light, solar heater, Wind mill water pumps in villages since majority of the population is in Villages and in small towns.

 setting up of Grid Interactive Solar Power Plants

India is being a heavy user of coal, which accounts in large amount of CO2 emission. Wind turbines can help to overcome emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. Wind farms are helping to reduce India’s reliance on fossil fuels and will reduce emissions by an estimated 50,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, which is comparatively large when compared with amount of CO2 emitted. India has aimed to reduce 20-25% CO2 emission. Apart from Wind Energy, Solar Energy is also a major source as far as India is concerned since it has sun light at an average of 9 hours a day throughout the year. India has planned to generate 22 GW of energy by 2022 from solar energy. Very recently off shore Wind farms are being installed and Solar energy is also being given importance.