Session 2.1: Impacts of COVID-19 on Energy and the Environment

May 17th, 2021

In order to have a better understanding of COVID-19's impacts on the energy transition, it is important to investigate the changes during the pandemic and post COVID-19 in terms of energy demands (in different sectors and different countries), energy mix (including renewable energy penetration), energy load profile (over different days of the week and different hours of the day), emissions and other aspects. This session aimed to review the energy and environmental impacts during COVID-19 and their future changes in the energy sector.

Presentations:

  • Renewables to the Rescue During COVID19 Pandemic: A Clean Energy Story
    Presenter: Sandhya Sundararagavan, Lead - Energy Transitions, World Resources Institute (WRI)
  • Presentation

    COVID 19 pandemic provided an opportunity for the electricity sector to re-think status quo in the energy mix and consider ways and means to also take advantage of green energy in the recovery. Especially during the lockdown, renewables became a lifeline for Tamil Nadu state in India last year with its share in state’s overall capacity crossing 45%. Moving forward, it is critical to analyze what will be the future of RE transition in the short, medium and long term. The stakeholders need to visualize, strategize, and plan for resilient, clean and sustainable energy transformation. In this regard, we undertook scenario analysis to evaluate suitable energy mix and emission levels looking at a 2030 timeframe for three scenarios - Low RE, High RE and Energy Efficiency Pathway having 50%, 60% and 70% share of renewables in state's installed capacity.

  • Coping with the Unexpected- M&V Approaches for Non-routine Adjustments
    Presenter: Shanker Earni, Program Manager, LBNL
  • Presentation

    Measurement and verification (M&V) plays a key role in ensuring that energy savings are realized with certainty and thereby instilling the necessary confidence in energy efficiency programs. Energy savings are verified by comparing pre-retrofit with post-retrofit energy consumption, along with adjustments to account for changes in conditions. These adjustments are mostly routine to account for factors like production volume though so-called non-routine adjustments (NRA) may be needed to account for non routine events (NRE) which are changes to static factors like product mix that typically stay constant under normal conditions. Identifying and isolating NREs along with quantifying their effect to make an appropriate NRA can be complex. A lack of proper guidance exacerbates this issue and has taken a special prominence due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has significantly altered the operations and resulting in abnormal energy consumption in most industrial plants. Especially, projects that are evaluated through meter-based M&V approaches face significant challenges without the risk of over or under estimating the actual performance of these plants. This presentation discusses the recently published IPMVP Application Guide on NRE/A that provides a road map along with a range of approaches for detecting NREs and quantifying their effects. This work also discusses how some of these approaches can be adopted to address adjustments related to COVID-19.

  • Empowering Local Governments for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: ADB's Smart and Energy Efficient City Project (TA-9600)
  • Presenter: Dr. HJ Lee, Program Manager, Asian Development Bank (ADB)

    The presentation will be covering activities of the Smart and Energy Efficient City Project (TA-9600 SEECP). SEECP focuses on empowering municipal governments to mainstream national energy policies in order to improve services while addressing climate change mitigation and sustainable development. Large-scale data collection has been conducted in six provinces and cities and served as the basis of ambitious but realistic municipal Energy Efficiency Action Plans (EEAPs). The data also supported preparation of project proposals for improving street lighting and building energy efficiency, smart city services, and renewable energy installation in the public sector. Summary of these results will be highlighted, along with the scope of low carbon energy technology deployment. The presentation will cover how the country will be placed in terms of achieving their NDC targets and the potential for going beyond the targets. Finally, it will address how implementation would be affected given the COVID-19 situation.

Panelists:

    • Nitin Jain, Programme Head -EE GIZ India
    • Rakesh Kumar Goyal, Vice President, Tetra Tech
    • Dhruv Suri, Research Consultant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology