Is Corporate India Ready for Renewable Power Consumption?

A new report by WWF India reviews the progress made by Corporate & Industrial consumers globally and in India for renewable power procurement

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In India, commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers utilise 51 percent of the total generated power. Of this, a mere 3 percent is from renewable energy. A new WWF-India report, ‘Global Corporate Renewable Power Procurement Models: Lessons for India’ reviews the progress made by C&I consumers globally and in India for renewable power procurement, and highlights the alternate RE procurement options. The report was launched at a WWF-India and CII event, The Rise of Renewables: Are You REDE?

M R Sreenivasa Murthy, former chairman, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) said, “WWF’s report highlights the need for a balance in both increasing renewable energy capacity and also harnessing corporate demand that better supports the overall energy system.”

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Currently, the avenues available to C&I consumers to procure renewable power are limited to rooftop solar installations, open access solar and wind power, and RECs. However, even these options are not freely available because of various policies and market constraints.

With the growing C&I renewable power market worldwide, many new alternate procurement options have opened up. Virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs), green tariffs, internationally tradable RECs (I-RECs) have already been successfully tried and tested in many countries. There are also proposals to set up dedicated renewable power exchanges and facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) trading.

The report further added that C&I consumers in India can cut their electricity bills in a range between 30 percent and 60 percent by replacing the grid power supply with renewable energy, according to World Wildlife Fund-India (WWF-India).

“With renewable power costs falling rapidly, C&I consumers have a very strong financial incentive to switch to clean energy. They can not only make attractive savings of around 30-60 percent on-grid power but also reduce carbon emissions and comply with Renewable Purchase Obligations,” WWF-India said in its report.