India’s Armed Forces are exploring various measures to conserve Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and fuel amid the ongoing global energy crisis triggered by the Iran war — from procuring alternative cooking sources, preferably biogas in the short term, to exploiting solar and wind energy on a larger scale over the next few months, senior officials told The Indian Express.
Orders to procure biogas stoves are in the pipeline and will be initiated soon by the Army, the officials said.
With the focus on conserving fuel, it is also being discussed whether the movement of large Army convoys for administrative purposes can be restricted to 400 km, while maximising the use of the rail network beyond that.
“Implementing limited restrictions on the routine movement of Army vehicles without affecting operational efficiency is being deliberated upon. This includes the pooling of vehicles and combining duties, such as the collection of rations, stores, and transportation of troops, wherever feasible. Furthermore, the use of CNG or electric civil hired transport will be encouraged where possible,” an official said.
Officials said some of these measures are in place, and others are in the process of being implemented. Other initiatives will be incorporated soon as part of the energy conservation efforts, and special drives towards their implementation are likely to be held over the next few weeks, they said.
According to officials, the conservation efforts will not impact operational flying although routine flights might be optimised. Operational flying can include those for recce, casualty evacuation, emergent relocation of troops, and transportation of ration and equipment. They said other measures to conserve fuel, oil and lubricants will also be encouraged at unit levels. Currently, 125-135 gm of gas is authorised per day for each soldier, for cooking food.
At present, every unit of the Army has four to six cookhouses feeding close to 125 to 150 soldiers every day, making cooking gas an essential commodity for troops deployed in various fields and peace units.
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Officials indicated that approximately 156,000 kg of cooking gas is consumed daily in the Army, and about 20 per cent of that can be saved through biogas, amounting to 30,000 kg per day.
Besides, the Army alone has approximately over two lakh vehicles of various types, which are used regularly for administration, training, operations and maintenance, including transportation of stores, equipment, troops and rations.
“Therefore, there is an enormous consumption of fuel on a daily basis for various administrative and operational duties,” an official said.
The consumption of lubricants used in vehicles for optimal functioning and maintenance of weapon systems increases in high altitude locations due to decreased efficiency of systems due to extreme weather conditions, officials said.
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In December last year, The Indian Express reported that the Armed Forces are planning to optimise thousands of acres of unutilised defence land across the country over the next three to five years for various projects — particularly those focusing on green energy initiatives, such as establishment of solar and biogas plants.
An estimated 46,000 acres of defence land are available for such projects, and options that were being explored include setting up solar plants, biogas plants, and afforestation and floriculture to earn carbon credits.
In October 2024, NTPC partnered with the Army to establish a solar hydrogen-based microgrid at Chushul in Ladakh to provide stable power supply at off-grid locations.
In a statement issued at the time, the Ministry of Defence had said that the microgrid system would operate independently, using hydrogen as an energy storage medium to supply 200kW of power round-the-clock through the year, and replace existing diesel gensets at off-grid locations.
