Editorial 1 : On the edge: On West Asia and the danger of a wider war

Introduction

• The killings of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in Beirut, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political chief of Hamas, in Tehran, have taken West Asia to the brink of a wider war.

Current situations on the ground

• Killings in Lebanon: Israel has claimed the strike on Beirut that killed Shukr
• Killings in  Iran: Israel is following a standard approach about its operations inside Iran by neither confirming nor denying its role in the assassination of Haniyeh
• Escalating conflicts in West Asia: Since the Gazan war last year, Israel’s northern border with Lebanon has remained tense ever with Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces exchanging fire.
• Intimidated Iran: After Shukr was killed, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Israel had breached a red line, and the group has launched dozens of rockets over the past week, heightening the tensions.
• Iranian Retaliation: Poses a bigger risk against Israel. When Israel bombed Iran’s embassy complex in Damascus, Iran launched hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles towards Israel, most of which were shot down by a U.S.-led coalition.
• Iranian vengeance: Iran is unlikely to ignore a direct Israeli attack on its capital that killed an ally who was in Tehran to attend the presidential inauguration.

Potential Power of Israel ‘on the ground offensive’

• Through the killings, Israel has demonstrated its capabilities to pull off sophisticated operations even in hostile territories.
•  Iran’s security and intelligence vulnerabilities have been exposed.
• Israel has also sent a strong message to Hamas, which carried out the October 7, 2023 attack, that none of its leaders is safe.

Concerns for Israel amidst the escalating tensions

• Unchecked militarism: PM Netanyahu could turn out to be counterproductive for Israel in the long run for being not serious for peace.
• Disturbing the peace-process: The killing of Haniyeh has come at a time when both Israel and Hamas were making progress in talks for a hostage-ceasefire deal. Haniyeh, who was living in exile in Doha, was a relatively moderate voice within Hamas who pushed for a ceasefire.
• Violating Iranian sovereignty: Mr. Netanyahu is telling the world that he wants the war to continue by carrying out the attack in Tehran.
• Challenging Islamic republic: To retaliate and a direct war breaks out between Israel and Iran, could drag the U.S. in between as desired by Israel, despite the Biden administration avoiding such a disastrous outcome in April by reining in Israel after Iran’s retaliation.
• Never ending War-zone:  But that did not stop Israel from launching another provocative attack against Iran, taking the region back to the brink again.

Way forward

•  As West Asia braces for Iran’s retaliation, the U.S. and its allies should work together to make sure that the impact of its response on Israel would be minimal, and then put in place new rules of the game for Israel so that it does not threaten regional security again. It is imperative that the global community should come forward and resolve west-asian disturbances by taking the issue out of the ground, and on to the table.

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Editorial 2 : Powering India’s future

Introduction

Recently in the budget speech, measures indicating India’s commitment to its clean energy transition were announced. These measures include developing policies on pumped hydro storage, and energy transition pathways to support nuclear energy and energy efficiency.

Government Energy Priorities

This is evident from the three key milestones India has achieved in the last decade. Indian priorities have been that of Energy security and the Clean energy transition.

• Saubhagya Scheme: It aims at near-universal electrification with independent surveys by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW). It suggested that approx 97% of households were electrified in 2020.
• Installed renewable energy (RE): The country saw a five-fold increase in capacity, making India the fourth-largest country globally by RE capacity.
• Reduction in discoms losses: To the tune of  40%  in aggregate to an all-time low of about 15% in 2022-23.

Thus, these indicate that the base of the Indian power sector is strengthening.

Challenges in Decarbonising the Power sector

• The speed and scale while supplying quality and affordable power to consumers are still untapped.
• Our annual electricity demand has been growing by 7-9% every year since the COVID-19 pandemic, But our peak demand is rising even faster.
• Climate change-induced weather extremes further exacerbate these challenges.
• For discoms, meeting unplanned surges through affordable options and existing network capacity is challenging, resulting in power outages.

Approaches to address the challenges of power sector

• Targets Approach – More renewables in power generation mix: The government must raise targets for renewable energy and storage systems to go beyond 500 GW in 2030. (current power generation mix is just 13%) This will scale up storage solutions. Thus supporting demand,  which are cost-competitive, and are faster to build.
• Diversified Approach – Faster deployment of diverse clean energy resources:  Diversifying from solar energy to other clean technologies would also help India meet its evolving demand. Also, India should tap the RE potential in more States as well as faster grid connectivity and access to suitable, conflict-free land for the timely commissioning of projects.
• Adapting global ideas: In 2023 alone, China added 300 GW of solar and wind capacity, while the European Union added 73 GW. As of March, India’s cumulative renewable capacity stood at 144 GW, with another 128 GW in the pipeline. This comparison indicates the urgency of deploying clean resources at speed and scale.
• Improving  the availability of energy:  During FY23, only 6.3% of India’s power generation was procured through power exchanges, with the rest coming through bilateral agreements.
• Stronger Bilateral agreements: The low liquidity (volume being traded) in the power exchange presents price volatility risks. This restricts both buyers and sellers from relying on the exchange for power procurement and value recovery, and in turn, constrains our ability to integrate renewables at scale.
• Innovation and more: is needed in bid designs to attract RE developers to sell power in the exchange, besides setting up capacities for long-term contracts.
• Coal maintenance and utilization:  In FY24, more than 210 GW of coal capacity generated about 80% of the power during non-solar hours. However, more than 40 GW of coal capacity was unavailable for nearly 60% of the time that year, due to planned maintenance or technical faults. Thus, State regulators must revise the norms to enable timely upkeep of the coal fleet and compensate for investments to make select coal plants flexible.
• Fast-track digitalisation:  To enable and empower discoms and consumers to play an active role in India’s energy transition. Smart meters would enable discoms to forecast power demand accurately, plan networks better, and integrate renewables cost-effectively.

Conclusion

Discoms must overcome their hesitation and take inspiration from Bihar and Assam, which are already reaping benefits like reduced losses and timely bill delivery to consumers through smart metering. But keeping consumer privacy and system preparedness against cyberattacks at the heart of regulations and digitalisation efforts would be crucial. Considering the critical decade of climate change, disasters, wars, etc, all eyes are on the Indian government to deliver towards cleaner targets. Investing in a cleaner, flexible, and resilient power grid will help our economy grow sustainably and create jobs in the clean energy sectors.