Electricity demand has consistently exceeded available supply in India. While the electricity deficit varies across states, nationally it was estimated to be of the order of 12% on peak and 11% for electricity during 2008-09. This paper explores a demand-side focused potential for energy efficiency improvement to eliminate the electricity deficit compared to a business as usual (BAU) supply-side focused scenario. The limited
availability of finance and other legal and administrative barriers have constrained the construction of new power plant capacity in India. As a result, under the BAU scenario, India continues to face an electricity deficit beyond the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan. The demand-side cost-effective potential achieved through replacement of new electricity-using products, however, is large enough to eliminate the deficit as early as
2013 and subsequently reduce the future construction of power plants and thus reduce air pollutant emissions.