The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy said, “The ministry (MNRE) should ensure continuous real-time monitoring of the working of the implementing agencies, support them vigorously in sorting out the glitches and take corrective action so that the physical targets set for the FY22 under various heads of the grant are successfully achieved.”
For the year 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, the target of grid-connected renewable energy was of 15,355 MW and 11,852 MW (megawatts), but the ministry could achieve only 8,159.52 and 8,761.26 respectively. There was a shortfall of about 45% and 26% during these years. In 2020-21 up to January 2021, only 5,473.08 MW could be installed against the target of 12,380 MW.
On January 31,2021, 92.54 GW of renewable energy capacity has been installed which is more than 50% of the target. It states that the remaining of 82.46 GW capacity has to be installed in just one and half year. But from the past records, it shows that ministry has not been able to fully utilize the budgetary allocations during the previous years.
The power ministry tabled in Parliament on Monday, has been asked to be more serious about the threat of cybersecurity in view of switching to smart grid. It stated, “Since the country has decided to go ahead with the smart grid and smart metering technologies in a big way, the committee is of the view that such issues could wreak havoc in the energy sector, if we are not prepared with a foolproof plan to timely avert them.”
