India needs to protect its nuclear fuel supply systems: Periasamy Kumaran

INN/New Delhi, @infodeaofficial

At the CII Energy Security Conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Mr. Periasamy Kumaran, Special Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, stated that phasing out coal while managing the social impact on communities that heavily rely on coal will remain a critical challenge as India delicately balances the three goals of energy security, environmental sustainability, and economic growth. In order to guarantee that nuclear power contributes more to our diverse energy mix, he also mentioned the necessity for the nation to safeguard nuclear fuel supply chains and create domestic technology.

With 17% of our energy production coming from coal, it is the mainstay of our power generation and is regarded as a practical and reasonably priced energy source. With large coal reserves, India uses coal to protect its energy security, particularly during times of high demand and shortages, Mr Kumaran added, praising the nation’s advancements in the field of renewable energy.

“In recent years, India has made large investments in clean energy. Our determination to improve energy security and sustainability is demonstrated by our aggressive goals of producing 500 GW of our renewable energy needs by 2030, our robust decarbonisation targets for the mobility sector, our green hydrogen mission, and the policy incentives provided by the PLI scheme for the production of solar PV systems, electric vehicles, and electrolysers, said Kumaran.

In the case of critical minerals, geopolitical concerns about their concentration and processing capacities in a few pockets of the world still exist, he added. India’s energy transition has drawn us deeply into global supply chains of solar modules, wind turbines, critical minerals, and semi-conductors, which are stretched and volatile. Having control over these resources can lead to new alliances and geopolitical tensions.

Oil and gas exploration in the Andaman Basin is scheduled to start, with the goal of making a significant discovery, according to Dr Pallavi Jain Govil, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. “We’re hoping that the Andaman Basin exploration will become our new Mumbai High,” she stated. Dr. Govil underlined the DGH’s efforts to increase trust in India’s exploration prospects by providing potential investors with access to high-quality geoscientific data.

In addition to highlighting the value of high-quality geological data in luring investment, Dr. Govil revealed plans to migrate India’s National Data Repository (NDR) to the cloud in order to enhance data accessibility and sharing. She provided information about collaborations on new energy technologies and the hosting of exploration data with the University of Houston, IIT Bombay, and IIT Madras.

“Fifty-five percent of usage is from coal. We are unable to escape coal, just as many nations throughout the world are dependent on it and cannot live without it. We have 200 billion tonnes of coal underground, and we need 1 billion tonnes. We’ve had enough. Pollution and coal quality are the issues. We can work together to address those issues through research and development. The Coal Ministry is working on a number of projects in this area. To utilise coal, we must develop carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCU) technologies, stated Mr. Prabh Das, MD and COO of HPCL Mittal Energy Limited.

Eliminating poverty is a crucial necessity for India. As stated by Amb Virendra Gupta, Co-Chairman of the CII Core Group on Energy Security and President of the Indian Council for International Cooperation, “We are diversifying our sources of oil from Middle East to Africa. Providing a sustained supply of energy resources is important if we want to be a developed nation by 2047.” Purchasing energy assets overseas was once thought to be synonymous with energy security. However, it might not always be the case. For example, even if you possess an energy asset, getting it to India can be difficult during a war or other terrible times. “It protects against price shocks at most,” he said, adding that his definition of energy security includes a steady supply of energy at reasonable prices.