India’s electricity generation has grown rapidly, especially renewables in the past five years.
Despite this, India’s peak power demand deficit increased from 0.69% in 2020 to about 5% in 2024.
Power production, especially fossil fuel-based, takes time, and integrating renewables is challenging.
Improving energy efficiency is the fastest and cheapest way to reduce power demand and tackle climate change.
The UJALA scheme, started 10 years ago, made LED bulbs affordable, dropping prices from ₹500 to ₹70.
UJALA also included a street lighting program installing over 13.4 million LED lamps, cutting peak demand by 1,500 MW.
About 37 crore LED bulbs were distributed by January 2025, with 407 crore more sold.
LED bulbs use half the power of compact fluorescent lamps and much less than incandescent bulbs, saving money and energy.
UJALA helped save over $10 billion and avoided building power plants equal to 9,500 MW capacity (19 coal plants).
Other energy efficiency efforts since the 2001 Energy Conservation Act helped India avoid 15% more energy demand and 300 million tons of CO₂ emissions by 2018.
India’s urbanization and rising energy needs, especially for cooling, pushed peak demand to 250 GW last year.
India is the third largest power consumer after China and the US.
Coal still supplies 70% of India’s power, and 90 GW more coal capacity is planned by 2032.
India needs stronger energy efficiency rules in buildings, appliances, and small businesses (MSMEs).
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