Information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to reduce ?up to 10% of India’s estimated greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2030 if used properly ?in nine energy-intensive sectors covered under the national action plan on climate change for implementing mitigation measures, says Rahul Bedi, chairman, Digital Energy Solution Consortium (DESC).
DESC India has as its members key companies from ICT and non-ICT sectors like NDPL, Microsoft, Dell and Infosys.
Among the sectors included in a study undertaken by DESC and CII jointly, commercial buildings, road transport and power were found to have the maximum energy saving potential of 42%, 30% and 16% respectively.
This is perhaps the first report of its kind in India. ?The DESC report allows industries to quantify their potential energy and monetary savings by adopting ICT-based solutions,? Bedi said.
However, implementing IT solutions to achieve targeted improvement in energy efficiency would need huge capital expenditure. The Planning Commission is doing a study to chart out a low-carbon growth path for the Indian economy and Bedi hopes that the Plan panel will take cognizance of its key findings while finalising its report.
The key cost components in the identified solutions are the ?imported equipment and consultancy services. Incentives that can lead to reduction in these two cost components can help increase the penetration rate of ICT solutions. However, factors like the lack of institutional mechanism, unavailability of energy efficiency benchmarks, weak regulatory norms for carbon emissions and inadequate standardisation for measuring energy efficiency of ICT equipment could pose hurdle to encouraging usage of ICT equipment to save energy.
For example, the cost of ICT equipment is quite high. According to the report, the total investment requirement for implementing solutions in the identified sectors is estimated at Rs 156,100 crore by 2030 for moderate penetration of ICT solutions. ?
If companies want to introduce ICT equipment for energy saving purposes, they need to be assured about financing support from banks. Otherwise, the high cost of technology might pose a big hurdle to encouraging companies to adopt ICT-based energy saving solutions on a large scale. Companies also need to know their baseline energy consumption to do cost-analysis benefit for ICT-based solutions. There is no regulation in India to punish emitters, companies have little incentive to focus on energy efficiency measures. Regulatory instruments like carbon tax and carbon emission caps would go a long way in encouraging companies to adopt ICT solutions.
The government needs to formulate such standards if it has to promote usage of ICT solutions by the industry.