Times Grey Cell organised The Economic Times Energise India 2007 on October 05, 2007 at New Delhi. The day-long conference focused on the energy sector in India, which is a mix dominated by coal, followed by oil and natural gas. As petroleum sources increasingly become dearer and the usage of other traditional sources such as coal and biomass burdens the environment and human health, transition to renewable and alternative sources evince greater prospects in the search for energy independence. Energy transition does not mean a complete shift to non-traditional sources and ignoring the present pattern of fuel dependency, but is largely meant to address the growing demand for generation of heat energy, electricity, and liquid fuel.

Despite many technological and economic limitations, experimental and small-scale commercial production of non-traditional sources in India has seen remarkable achievements over the past few years. While renewable energy is expected to contribute 10% to total electricity production by 2012, biofuels have already made a promising start by replacing petroleum fuels in many of the experimental transportation operations and in some commercial usages.
India’s target is to achieve energy security by 2020, leading to energy independence by 2030 and beyond to be achieved by a combination of various supply sources and subsequently external supply of fuels can be substantially reduced or replaced by domestic production.

This conclave provided a strong foundation for understanding how the energy sector should organize itself and move to achieve the targeted energy independence by 2020 or earlier.

Key points discussed were:

• Role of the First Estate – Energy Policy in Demand Context
• Energy Conservation Codes
• Energy Efficiency and Demand side Management
• International Energy agenda in the Supply Context - A US perspective
• Energy Pricing Scenario
• Indo-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation