Written by Umang Saini
on 

Unit

One of the largest component of primary energy usage is energy purchased from one's  local power utility. I stayed briefly in Greater Noida for 11 months in 2011. In Greader Noida, the power is supplied by Noida Power Company, which is part of the $3.7bn RPG group. The group claims of supplying energy to a total 0.7mn people in an area of 330 sq-km.

At Rs. 3.45 per unit, and average usage of 2.65 units per day over 11 months + Rs. 65 min per month, my power costs were around Rs. 340 (~$6) per month. The region is marketed as no power-cut zone, however during my stay of 11 months, I observed regular power cuts starting in the summer season (May to August) .

 
 "My electricity units usage chart for last 3 years"


I've stayed in Bangalore for 5.5 years, and have paid power bills in the range of Rs. 400 to Rs. 600 per month. Energy costs as well as quality of supply are a matter of general concern. The privately held utility in Noida is in the process of installing a new 400MW Gas-powered plant but that's not nearly enough for the current 0.7mn and growing population. 

The national average, as I wrote about last year is 0.73 toe. To put this in perspective, in terms of energy usage, I may be only 2x the global average, however that is still ~12x the local area's average.

Here are few UN and Wikipedia numbers of India's overall electricity usage - 
  1. Electricity Usage per person per year (2008) - 556 kWh
  2. Electricity Usage per person per year (2009) - 590 kWh
  3. Electricity Usage per person per year (2010) - 616 kWh
  4. Residential Electricity Usage per person per year (2006) - 101 kWh
  5. Residential Electricity Usage per person per year (2007) - 109 kWh
  6. Residential Electricity Usage per person per year (2008) - 111 kWh
  7. Electricity Usage per person per year (2009-10) - Karnataka only - 855 kWh
From EIA data -
In 2008, India had approximately 177 gigawatts (GW) of installed electric capacity and generated 761 billion kilowatt hours.
Thus installed generators work for an average of 4300 hours per year, or 11.8 hours per day or at 49% capacity. In 2012 the generation capacity is now 210GW. You may explore other data points at Google Public data or Gapminder -


My residential consumption is 1125 units per year for two people. This translates to 562 units per person against ~120 units average ~4.7x. In terms of TOE (tonnes of Oil equivalent) my consumption hovers around 4.36 vs. 0.56 per capita Indian average. This puts me at 7.8x the average. Not having an AC / Geyser has helped my electricity consumption being lower that overall energy usage.

Next target - <800 units usage per year. It's going to be a tough one ~2 units per day, a 30% decrease from current levels.

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