State Energy and Climate Index

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 14, Apr 2022

Recently, the NITI Aayog launched the State Energy and Climate Index (SECI).

• It is the first index that aims to track the efforts made by states and UTs in the climate and energy sector.

State Energy and Climate Index:

• The States have been categorized based on size and geographical differences as larger and smaller States and UTs.
• The index is based on 2019-20 data.
• The states and UTs are categorized into three groups: Front Runners, Achievers, and Aspirants. 

The objectives of the index are:

1. Ranking the States based on their efforts towards improving energy access, energy consumption, energy efficiency, and safeguarding the environment.
2. Helping drive the agenda of the affordable, accessible, efficient and clean energy transition at the State level.
3. Encouraging healthy competition among the states on different dimensions of energy and climate.

It ranks the states’ performance on 6 parameters, namely:

1. DISCOM’s Performance.
2. Access, Affordability and Reliability of Energy.
3. Clean Energy Initiatives.
4. Energy Efficiency.
5. Environmental Sustainability.
6. New Initiatives.

The parameters are further divided into 27 indicators. 

Performance of various states:

1. Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab have been ranked as the top three performers in the category of larger States, while Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were the bottom three States.
2. Goa emerged as the top performer in the smaller States category followed by Tripura and Manipur.
3. Among UTs, Chandigarh, Delhi and Daman & Diu/Dadra & Nagar Haveli are the top performers.
4. Punjab was the best performer in discom performance, while Kerala topped in access, affordability and reliability category.
5. Haryana was the best performer in clean energy initiative among larger States and Tamil Nadu in the energy efficiency category.