Accelerating Improvements in the Energy Efficiency of Room Air Conditioners (RACs) in India: Potential, Cost-Benefit, and Policies (Interim Assessment)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Falling AC prices, increasing incomes, increasing urbanization, and high cooling requirements due to hot climate are all driving increasing uptake of Room Air Conditioners (RACs) in the Indian market. Air conditioning already comprises 40-60% of summer peak load in large metropolitan Indian cities such as Delhi and is likely to contribute 150 GW to the peak demand in 2030. Standards and labeling policies have contributed to improving the efficiency of RACs in India by about 2.5% in the last 10 years (2.5% per year) while inflation adjusted RAC prices have continued to decline. In this paper, we assess the technical feasibility, cost-benefit, and required policy enhancements by further accelerating the efficiency improvement of RACs in India. We find that there are examples of significantly more accelerated improvements such as those in Japan and Korea where AC efficiency improved by more than 7% per year resulting in almost a doubling of energy efficiency in 7 to 10 years while inflation adjusted AC prices continued to decline. We find that the most efficient RAC sold on the Indian market is almost twice as efficient as the typical AC sold on the market and hence see no technology constraints in a similar acceleration of improvement of efficiency. If starting 2018, AC efficiency improves at a rate of 6% instead of 3%, 40-60 GW of peak load (equivalent to connected load of 5-6 billion LED bulbs), and over 75 TWh/yr (equivalent to 60 million consumers consuming 100 kWh/month) will be saved by 2030; total peak load reduction would be as high as 50 GW. The net present value (NPV) of the consumer benefit between 2018-2030 will range from Rs 18,000 Cr in the most conservative case (in which prices don’t continue to decline and increase based estimates of today’s cost of efficiency improvement) to 140,000 Cr in a more realistic case (in which prices are not affected by accelerated efficiency improvement as shown by historical experience). This benefit is achievable by ratcheting up the 1 star level for fixed and inverter ACs to the level of today’s five star rating for inverter ACs by 2022. Bulk procurement (similar to the Domestic Efficient Lighting Program) and incentive programs can complement the accelerated ratcheting up of star levels. Similar programs can also be implemented for other types of ACs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1342532
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-1005798; ir:1005798
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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