Energy and Climate Index: Gujarat, Kerala & Punjab are Top-Performing States

Gujarat, Kerala, and Rajasthan are the top three performing states according to Niti Aayog's State Energy and Climate Index (SECI), which measures a state's performance in six areas, including Discom performance, access, affordability, and reliability, as well as clean energy initiatives.

SECI (Round I) ranks states based on six criteria: DISCOM performance, energy access, affordability, and reliability, clean energy initiatives, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and new initiatives. The parameters are then subdivided into 27 indicators. The States and UTs are divided into three groups based on their composite SECI Round I score Front Runners, Achievers, and Aspirants.

The country-level scores for each parameter are calculated by taking the average of the state-level scores for those parameters. The overall score for India is 40.6. The national average score for DISCOM's performance is 56.8. Access, affordability and dependability, and environmental sustainability all have average scores of 46.4 and 37.7, respectively.

The national average scores for clean energy initiatives and energy efficiency are 22.2 and 29.1, respectively, while the all-India average score for new initiatives is 11.1.

Top Performers

Overall, among the larger states, Gujarat, Kerala, and Punjab are the top three performers, while Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh are the bottom three.

Goa, Tripura, and Manipur are the top performers among smaller states, while Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh are the bottom three.

Among Union Territories, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu perform best, while Andaman and Nicobar, Jammu and Kashmir, and Lakshadweep perform worst.

Discom Performance

The Discom performance indicator is an important metric for assessing a state's performance. It consists of nine indicators: debt-equity ratio, AT&C losses, average cost of supply (ACS), average realizable revenue (ARR) gap, T&D losses, consumer time of day (ToD)/time of use (ToU) tariffs, DBT transfer, open access surcharge, regulatory assets, and tariff complexity.

Punjab is the best-performing large state, with comparatively higher scores in indicators such as debt-equity ratio, regulatory assets, open access surcharge, and tariff complexity. Goa is the best performer among the smaller states in this category.

Way Forward

The SECI allows states to explore and benchmark themselves on a variety of parameters. For example, larger states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have performed well in terms of energy efficiency, whereas two small UTs — Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli — have performed well in terms of Discom performance.

Better-performing states' best practises for all indicators can be adopted by other states to improve their performance. SECI will assist states in understanding their performance across a variety of parameters/indicators.