Recently Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, conducted an effective workshop in collaboration with the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited to discuss the regulatory pathways, innovative financial mechanisms, and public-private collaboration to advance the next phase of transport electrification.
The state of West Bengal has an opportunity to incorporate electrification as one of its key strategies to deliver on energy transition, climate and clean air action.
To strengthen thistrajectory, it is necessary to tap the learning curve from the ongoing first phase of electrification in the state and to provide valuable insights for further strengthening of the implementation
framework to deliver on the intended objectives.
Dr.Anumita Roychowdhury is the Executive Director of Research and Advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi-based think tank. She has had a distinguished career in research, communication, and advocacy on sustainable urbanisation, encompassing clean air action, clean and low carbon mobility, and sustainable buildings and habitat.
“Our primarily interest was in the strategies that go beyond the direct demand incentives to more effective regulatory tools and instruments including supply side ZEV sales mandate for the manufacturers, procurement mandate for fleet operators, support for public charging and residential home charging that can catalyse the market to make the transition more cost effective and revenue neutral.”
The growing interest in such a pathway that is less dependent on direct fiscal subsidies for consumers but more on strategic support for infrastructure development for a self-propelling market nudged by the strong regulatory tools, builds confidence. In fact, the West Bengal market is an opportunity as the EV market is already adapting to limited fiscal support and higher costs of electricity (even after incentive) and higher charging installation costs compared to several other states. Even though the overall market is small and motorisation rate in West Bengal is lower than several other states, the EV penetration in the annual sales of the top OEMs (2W and cars) is increasing. This is the inflexion point where strategic intervention can be a game changer”. – Roychowdhury added.
It can be helpful to assess how regulatory targets, targeted fiscal measures, supply side mandate, well-designed procurement models, and robust public–private partnerships can effectively drive the expansion of charging infrastructure and grid interface, deployment of urban and freight fleets including electric buses.
A combination of national demand incentive programmes including FAME, PM e-bus sewa, PM e-drive and the state level electric vehicle policy including the tax measures have already catalysed the initial transition. But for the longer-term sustainability it is also necessary to go beyond the demand incentive strategies to assess the potential and opportunity in deploying other regulatory levers including targets and mandates, non-fiscal measures and private participation to drive the change and also to make the transition more revenue neutral.
Nationally and globally, there is a growing interest in shaping such regulatory strategies,supply side mandates, and non-fiscal measures to catalyse private investments for the EV ecosystem readiness. Several global experiences have demonstrated the effectiveness of these strategies to enable this shift. Capturing and sharing the global and national learning curve will provide valuable insights for the detailed implementation and operational framework in the state.
This workshop brought together the key stakeholders including planning and implementing agencies in the state, industry representatives, service providers and experts including fiscal experts, to discuss the regulatory pathways, innovative financial mechanisms, and public-private collaboration to advance the next phase of transport electrification.
(Inputs from CSE & Edited by Pratyusha Mukherjee, Sr.Broadcast Journalist, British Media)
