Heat Stress and Energy Consumption - An Act of Jouissance?

 The word jouissance was coined by Lacan which means “satisfaction of a drive and not as the satisfaction of a need”. The French term means – “Pleasure- In – Pain”. Lacan associates the word with a repetitive act or a compulsive act which we do over and over again even though in the end it causes us pain. The act of human-induced climate change coupled with our unbridled growth and energy consumption drive can be seen as a “Jouissance”. The perpetual satisfaction of greed and drive to chase money and orient an economy and demand system of chasing money forces an unsustainable energy consumption behaviour and economic growth. It creates a demand for fossil fuel consumption and leads to human-induced climate change from GHG emissions arising from such economic activities and unbridled energy consumption.  

The human-induced climate change then causes heat waves, climate disasters, heat stresses, and urban heat islands which causes pain to the urban civilization who was the cause to the creation of such a pain. In the perpetual need to sustain an urban civilizational behavior of energy consumption through energy-efficient or inefficient AC in urban heat islands, the pain and pleasure continue for eternity for urban heat islands of modern civilization. 

Therefore, pleasure stays in the form of larger energy-efficient AC consumption at a higher rate, while pain in the form of increasing heatwaves in cities and urban heat islands also prospers. The continuation happens to an extent where cities like Delhi of North India which are more prone to heatwaves and already have created heat islands have to be more worried to be prepared for a daily peak load demand of around more than 8 GW in the summer season of 2024. 

Given the international net zero commitment of India in 2070, a city like Delhi which is a victim as well as the creator of urban heat islands and heat effects from human-induced climate change is forced to think of procuring power from renewable energy sources to address the forecasted peak demand of 8 GW in the summer season of 2024. 

The onus of supplying electricity by procuring from renewable energy sources therefore falls upon the loss-making DISCOM sector of India. Delhi is also not an exception. Hence, in Delhi, distribution companies like Tata Power DDL, BSES Rajdhani Power, BSES Yamuna Power have to make arrangements for sourcing renewable energy based electricity to meet the rising electricity demand. Tata Power DDL has a consumer base of 19 lakh whereas BSES has 2 crore 50 lakh residents in South, West, East, and Central Delhi. In each of these zones, wherever the peak demand goes up due to say higher AC consumption during summer, it creates a higher propensity of urban heat effect while the summer heatwaves also continue in a homogenous way across all zones of Delhi. Hence the act of pleasure and pain continues simultaneously in the urban, civilizational landscape of Delhi. 

In the meantime, for the Jouissance to continue complemented by renewable energy sources, the loss-making DISCOMs get into long-term power purchase and banking arrangements with other neighboring states to supply power to Delhi amid the heat waves of summer. Through a power banking arrangement, DISCOMs of Delhi ensure to get 670 MW. Around 2100 MW of green power is sourced from solar, wind, and waste-to-energy sources to sustain the pain and pleasure game of heat effects and energy consumption behaviour of Delhi residents. Out of the 2100 MW of green power, 888 MW comes from solar power, 500 MW arises from wind power and 40 MW is generated from Waste-to Energy, and 160 MW of roof-top solar power is installed on roof-tops which will also be utilized to mitigate the peak load demand of the summer months. 

The question is are these sources enough to reduce the fossil fuel-based electricity consumption of Delhi which can thereby reduce the human-induced impacts of climate change and also reduce the heat effects, and heat stresses caused by human behavior while the heat waves of Delhi summer months continue. Clearly, the answer is NO! Rising energy consumption behaviour needs to be checked by Battery Energy  Storage Systems (BESS) but that also adds to the cost of supplying power and electricity and might not always be viable for ailing DISCOMs and cost friendly for the consumers. However, the good news is that Delhi already has its Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) at Rohini and Rani Bagh and it promises to support in providing continuous and reliable power to key customers during any exigency in summers. 

However, the cost economics of BESS driven power supply by DISCOMs across various cities of India still needs to be worked out. According to many, pumped storage works out better than BESS. However, some successful BESS-driven Power Purchase Contracts are operational where concessional loans were given to set up the BESS by DISCOMs. However, there is no definite answer to this aspect. Heat effects in the peaking summers of Delhi can cause eventualities for which mobile distribution transformers, additional staff, dedicated round-the-clock teams, and supply restoration infrastructure for sub-transmission systems have to be created. All of these would mean additional costs and investments which can be a challenge for loss making DISCOMs. 

Hence, a radical push need to come in to implement all the above measures to take the entire system out of this Jouissance. Apart from regulatory, policy, and financial measures and incentives to take out the system from this Jouissance of Heat Effect and Energy Consumption, a complete shift in the social and economic system is required. In the long term, a city life structure like Delhi is not sustainable if heat waves, and climate disasters increase. With the rise of such climate events, Delhi as a city cannot afford to continue its behavior of raising heat islands through rising AC loads. New forms of city lifestyles, value systems, social nudges for reduced energy conservation and nature conservation behavior by preserving trees, and lakes have to be worked out. Cars in the city have to be reduced by pushing a degrowth-centric city lifestyle which incentivizes community-based lifestyles facilitating energy and nature conservation by incentivizing it for the citizens on a larger scale. Incentivization can be thought through in the form of a complementary money or currency system where citizens who help in reducing heat effects , heat islands or energy consumption are allowed to transact in alternative or complementary forms of currencies for the exchange of goods and services and are allowed to create a society which has an optimal amount of heat effects or heat islands. Even though it sounds like Fiction, An Act of Jouissance needs a fictional reality to secure the city civilization from future heat effects. Covid did rescue nature from us for sometime in the recent past through such a fictional reality.