Some Aspect of Policy Structuring for Strategic Planning Towards Sustainable Integrated Renewable Energy Use for Rural India

Abstract

Energy has been globally accepted as one of the most valuable inputs for economic growth and human development. Economic growth and energy consumption have a strong two-way relationship. The demand for energy in agriculture, industrial, commercial and household sectors has increased tremendously and placed enormous pressure on its resources in rural/isolated areas. India has introduced several policies/schemes for development sustainable energy for rural areas through Niti Aayog and related ministries. However, more refinement in a holistic way is required for sustainability in view. Renewable energy use can be considered as a very good supplement to fill the gap between demand and supply in rural areas. It has been conjectured that there is a need to identify potent descriptive policy elements for Rural Renewable Energy System under Indian context to design an integrated policy structure in a comprehensive manner. This not only would reduce complexity to a larger extent but also concretise on the important descriptive policy elements. The work has therefore been conceptualised in seven objectives which are presented in seven chapters of the thesis. newlineChapter 1 introduces the need of developing a sustainable renewable energy system for rural and remote isolated areas of India in an integrated way and establishes seven objectives for the purpose. newlineChapter2 reviews literature on related fields besides renewable energy system namely Nominal Group Technique, Hierarchical Structuring of elements, Option Field and Option Profile Methodologies, Multicriteria Decision Making Methodologies including Fuzzy Dominance and Forecasting Techniques like Delphi besides Scenario Building Techniques. The literature establishes the need for the objectives laid down in Chapter I newlineChapter3 is dedicated to understanding the complexity of the Rural Renewable Energy System at policy level and tries to reduce complexity by identifying potent elements after undergoing convergence through small group consensus driven methodology of Nominal Group Technique (NGT) bringing them down to 67 from 652. newlineChapter 4 utilizes developing Interpretive Structural Model of the 67 elements under the contextual relation Affects with the help of domain experts in a workshop setting bringing twenty levels in hierarchy and five strong cycles. newlineChapter 5 used the developed ISM in extracting three alternative structures after determining field and profile of the system in an ordered way. Ten Categories/Dimensions were identified for developing the field and complete profiling of the system. The process was carried out using Option Field and Profile Methodology with the help of domain experts in another workshop setting. The three alternatives were evaluated under eight features for their relative dominance using Fuzzy Dominance Order Technique. newlineChapter 6 dwells on forecasting of various element of the derived dominant structure using Delphi technique. A questionnaire with 27 elements and 10 dimensions was developed. 239 questions were framed for each respondent. Twelve domain experts participated to give responses for six trend status namely for the current status in 2022 with 2017 as base year assuming the trend with no change, with the effect of pandemic and with special impetus by the government respectively. Same trends were extrapolated as a forecast for next short term of five years that is for 2027. newlineLater Scenario building exercise was conducted with three separate team of experts using Harva Method to give three separate scenarios with points of crisis. points of fulfilment and an action plan for implementation. The leader of each team presented its scenario which was discussed and finalized. This is given in Table 6.2 of this chapter. newlineChapter 7 discusses results and concludes the findings with its salient contributions. It also discusses the future scope of work. newline newline newline