Introduction

Energy plays a pivotal role in the development of a region. Increasing dependency on fossil fuels has caused serious concerns at the local (energy dependency, GHG emission, pollution, etc.) and global (global warming, climate change, etc.) levels. Harvesting of energy depends on the availability of resources apart from the economic viability and technical feasibility of meeting the demand. The energy requirement of India is mainly supplied by coal and lignite followed by crude oil and petroleum products and electricity (CEA 2016; EIA 2016; TEDDY 2016; Ramachandra and Ganesh Hegde 2015). However, energy consumption in rural India is largely dependent on non-conventional energy sources due to the availability, possibility of rapid extraction, and appropriate technologies. Globalization and consequent opening up of Indian markets has led to urbanization with the enhanced energy demand in the industrial and infrastructure sectors. There is a need to navigate the energy transition for sustainable growth in socio-economic aspects of the country. Though the energy consumption per GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is higher, production of valuable goods is quite low in the country which shows that there is a need to improve the end-use efficiency. Coupled with this inefficiency, the perishing stock of global fossil fuel reserves and the growing concerns of global warming and consequent changes in the climate has necessitated the improvements in end use energy efficiency along with the exploration of cost effective, environment friendly, and sustainable energy alternatives (Ramachandra and Ganesh Hegde 2015).
Renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind are emerging as viable alternatives to meet the growing energy demand of the burgeoning population. Strengthening of transmission and distribution network with the integration of local generating units (RE-based standalone units) would help in meeting the demand. Distributed generation (DG) with micro grids are required to minimize transmission and distribution (T and D) losses, and optimal harvesting of abundant local resources (such as solar, biofuel, etc.). The focus of the current communication are i) understanding the energy scenario in India; ii) sector- and source-wise energy demand with the scope for energy conservation; and iii) prospects of renewable energy with smart grids to meet the distributed energy demand while optimizing harvest of local energy sources (Ramachandra et al., 2014a; 2014b; 2014c).
Per capita energy consumption varies across countries (based on the analysis of 2004-05 and 2014-15). It is higher in developed nations (USA-7.3 TOE, Canada-7.6 TOE, Japan 3.7 TOE) compared to the developing (India-0.6 TOE, China-1.8 TOE, Brazil-1.4 TOE) and less developed nations (<0.4 TOE). Figure 1 compares the energy consumption per capita versus GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita among the countries (Top 25 GDP countries). Norway (99,933 million USD) tops in GDP per capita followed by Switzerland (79,024 million USD), Australia (65,430 million USD) and Sweden (55,341 million USD) which shows the effective utilization of energy. The per capita GDP value of India is 1555.50 million USD, which is lowest among these countries. But, Energy consumption per GDP (Energy intensity) of India is higher, hinting the inefficient use of energy. Figure 2 compares the energy intensity (the ratio of energy consumption per GDP) versus GDP per capita of various countries. Energy intensity of India is about 0.42 kgoe/million USD which is more than 12 times that of Switzerland (0.033 kgoe/million USD), more than 4 times that of Germany (0.092 kgoe/million USD), more than 3 times that of USA (0.137 kgoe/million USD) and about 1.3 times that of China (0.325 kgoe/million USD). The prosperity of a nation depends on the efficient use of energy or the energy intensity than the per capita energy consumption.