The ongoing Iran war and the subsequent shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is an opportunity for Indians to shift energy use timing, new and renewable energy minister Pralhad Joshi said today. Indians must explore shifting evening cooking hours before sunset so that they can use solar-run induction cooktops, he said, speaking at The Economist Resilient Futures Summit in New Delhi.
“If cooking can be shifted before 5 pm, thereby shifting the use of energy before sunset, gas import can be reduced to the maximum,” he said.
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz—described by energy historian Daniel Yergin as the biggest energy disruption the world has ever seen—has triggered an acute shortage of LPG cylinders in India, with a shift to induction cooktops witnessed in many parts of the country. Reports also indicate that the crisis has prompted migrant workers to return to their hometowns.
More than half of Indian households experienced delays, difficulty in booking cylinders, and irregular delivery problems in the last month, according to a survey by LocalCircles. Despite the government’s efforts to find alternative suppliers, ramp up supplies from its own refineries, and nudge consumers toward alternatives, the crisis is set to continue in the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, as the government promotes induction cooking, additional power demand of 13 GW to 27 GW is expected under low and high adoption scenarios. “The transition towards induction cooking is expected to add an additional layer of demand at the distribution level, potentially influencing overall load patterns,” Krushna Chandra Panigrahy, director general at the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, had said earlier this month.
Renewable power currently faces oversupply during solar hours, as demand peaks after sunset. Shifting part of electricity consumption to daytime hours can help bridge this demand–supply mismatch while enabling greater utilisation of solar generation.
Joshi, at the same event, also said that the government is focusing on increasing renewable energy consumption. “Although we need gas, we can use renewable energy for many purposes. The government is promoting households to install rooftop solar and charge electric vehicles during the daytime, which will add to our energy security.”
The minister added that the government is working on an aggressive trajectory to boost domestic manufacturing capacity in the upstream solar value chain, including ingots, wafers, and polysilicon, while also noting that a battery storage manufacturing production-linked incentive scheme is also in place to increase capacity.