A report on India Energy Week 2023
Shweta Tyagi*
The first major event under India’s G20 Presidency the India Energy Week 2023 India held in Bengaluru from February 6–8, 2023 and provided a dynamic unique opportunity for India to bring together all the international stakeholders, domestic as well as international, on a common platform to facilitate Growth, Collaboration and Transition to make a sustainable, transformative and prosperous future for all. The India Pavilion at IEW provided an immersive digital experience, showcasing India’s energy evolution, innovation, achievements, multi-pronged strategy to diversify our energy mix, policy reforms, energy transition and sustainability actions and goals.
The Strategic conference was successful in bringing together the key stake holders from the integrated energy value chain to share insights on strategies and trends impacting global energy markets, while Executive sessions convene leaders at the forefront of business operations to share best practices in pursuing the net zero agenda, and the technical conference offered engineers and project managers access to latest industry expertise. It attracted participation of more than 35 Foreign ministers including heads of international organisations, 500 international speakers, over 30,000 energy professionals, over 8000 delegates and 700 exhibitors from more than 100 over 50 countries to discuss India’s pioneering approach in Energy sector while India is the G20 President.
The IEW was designed to highlight India’s growing expertise as a powerhouse in the energy transition. Its theme was “Growth, Cooperation, Transition.” On February 6, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi officially opened the three-day event in the presence of other dignitaries, including the Minister of Petroleum, Shri Hardeep S. Puri, the Governor of Karnataka, Shri Thawar Chand Gehlot, Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri Basavaraj Bommai, and the Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameshwar Teli.
In order to raise awareness for green fuels, Prime Minister Modi unveiled E20 fuel (a mixture of 20% ethanol with gasoline) as part of the event. He also signalled the start of a green mobility rally. He also unveiled the twin-cooktop variant of Indian Oil’s indoor solar cooking system and launched uniforms made of recycled PET bottles as part of the company’s “Unbottled” campaign.
The government’s effort to become “Aatmanirbhar” in the energy sector has included the ethanol blending scheme as one of its key initiatives. E20 fuel would be introduced by the prime minister at 84 retail locations of oil marketing corporations in 11 states and UTs in accordance with the plan for ethanol blending. By 2025, all ethanol will have been blended, according to the government’s objectives.
PM Modi stresses the mantra of “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”
Prime Minister Modi gave his opening remarks to the gathering. “Today, India is one of the strongest voices in the world in energy transition and in developing new supplies of energy,” he stated, speaking about the growing exceptional opportunities for the energy sector in India. The achievement of Indians’ objectives depends greatly on energy. The demand for energy is rising daily throughout all sectors of society, from businesses to offices and homes to factories. Several new cities are anticipated to be constructed in India in the upcoming years due to the country’s fast urbanisation. India’s energy demand will be the greatest in the world this decade, according to the International Energy Association. The energy sector now has new investment and stakeholder options thanks to India.”
He added that India has the fourth-largest refining capacity in the world with its current capacity of 250 MMTPA, which is being increased to 450 MMTPA. He stated that the nation’s goals include raising the capacity of LNG terminals for re-gasification and swiftly extending the length of the gas pipeline network. Along with making rapid progress in the bio-energy sector, India has budgeted for the construction of 500 new “waste to wealth” facilities as part of the Gobar-Dhan Yojana. He went on to say that priority capital investments around Rs 35,000 crore have been set aside to further net zero and energy transition goals. In the budget, we have also allocated Rs 10 lakh crore for capital expenses. Additionally, this will hasten the development of solar, highways, and green hydrogen infrastructure. “Circular economy, in a sense, is a part of every Indian’s way of life. Our principles have been imbued with the maxim of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Shri Hardeep S. Puri stated that “We are initiating the largest effort in the world to reuse and recycle 100 million PET bottles per year,” he said, “in keeping with the clarion call given by PM to phase out single-use plastic items.”
To strengthen the US-India energy partnership, the US-India Business Council leads a delegation
India hosted the 9th Asian Ministerial Energy Roundtable with the support of the International Energy Forum (IEF) with the goal of “Mapping Stable & Secure Energy Pathways for Achieving Energy Security, Energy Justice, Growth and Innovation” as well as the India-US Executive Roundtable with the support of the US-India Business Council and the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum. Ambassador Atul Keshap, USIBC President Shreerupa Mitra, USIBC Deputy Managing Director Sidhanta Mehra, and Director for Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure Raghvendra Upadhya served as the delegation’s leaders.
A high-level meeting with Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, a roundtable discussion on US-India Energy Transition Collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, industry briefings, and other meetings with officials were among the engagements of the USIBC delegation. The first event the USIBC attended as part of its involvement with India’s G20 agenda was India Energy Week. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce views IEW as an opportunity to talk about equitable growth and sustainable development because India is one of the economies with the fastest growth rates.
Significant Memorandums of Understanding
The evolution of the Indian energy industry has reached a turning point thanks to India Energy Week. In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Houston, Texas, USA, and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon, MoPNG, was signed at the event. This marked a significant development in the strengthening of the strategic alliance between India and the United States for the establishment of a data centre with the University of Houston.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to further their cooperation in the collection and analysis of energy-related data in order to improve the security of the world’s energy supply.
Reliance Launches India’s first Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine-Powered Trucks
The first hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2ICE) for heavy-duty vehicles was unveiled by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) under the leadership of PM Modi. Although they give performance on par with standard diesel trucks and produce less noise, these trucks assert to release almost no pollutants, revolutionizing the future of green mobility.
As part of its net carbon-zero ambition, Reliance Industries has been working along with its vehicle partner Ashok Leyland and other technical partners to create this special technology since last year. Before to its initial commercial deployment, Reliance will thoroughly test and evaluate the H2ICE technology for heavy-duty trucks. The company wants to develop a complete hydrogen mobility ecosystem.
Era of Resilience Begins
India’s announcement of the Global Biofuel Alliance marked the conclusion of India Energy Week 2023 by the minister Sh. Hardeep Singh Puri. He praised both national and international participants for coming together on a single stage to foster development, cooperation, and change in order to create a sustainable, transformative, and prosperous future for all and stating that the age of innocence is over, and the age of resiliency has begun.” He highlighted various initiatives taken by the government in the energy sector to ensure the energy security of its 1.4 billion citizens while remaining true to India’s commitment at COP26 to reduce emissions in order to achieve net-zero by 2070.
IEW 2023 has been a terrific beginning to a journey that will continue and grow stronger. There are essentially no worldwide platforms that cover the concerns of developing and developed countries’ energy transition in the same way that were done through IEW. India recently announced its aims to reach net zero emissions and to meet fifty per cent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030, which will be seen as a hugely significant moment for the global fight against climate change. The platform will only gain momentum and strength going forward as the globe struggles with the issues of a swift and equitable energy transition.
*Chief Functionary, India Water Foundation
