Sustainable Solutions to lead India’s Green Energy Shift

Industry leaders share their optimism on how Indian electrical and power sector is transforming itself towards green with the help of more sustainable technologies and solutions.

The power sector In India is on a revival path after the pandemic impacted the market last year. India’s peak power demand has surpassed the 200 GW mark in this July indicating a resurgence in power usage in commercial and industrial segments after governments lifted the lockdown enforced due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Present trends impacting the electrical and power sector

Presently, we have various ongoing trends like digitalisation, urbanisation, globalisation, demographic shift that are impacting the health of people and the industries, especially in a COVID era. Let’s not forget the overall impacts on the climate change and on the environment across the world. When we talk about India, we have humungous young population, and with the number of young populations, India can impose pressure to build required additional infrastructure, further opening several avenues for employment opportunities. This will further boost Indian government’s plan to make India a manufacturing hub.

Nothing the market projections, Ganesh Kothawade, Sr. Vice President, Electrification- Distribution Solutions, ABB India Limited., says, “This push will also augment the demand for power, along with advanced electrical equipment. If we compare a data per capita consumption in India, is hardly 1200 kWh per person, and if we compare it to the developed country which is 10 times more.” So, you can imagine even to just reach a world average, our per capita consumption is likely to triple in the next 10 years.

As per views of Manas Kundu, Director – Energy Sources, International Copper Association of India (ICA India), India’s energy story in recent times is no less than an extraordinary success, but sustaining the benefits of this success remains to be a key concern. Purely, in terms of availability of power, in recent years, hundreds of millions of Indians gained access to electricity; dedicated programs have helped rapid adoption of highly efficient LED lighting in most households; there is a massive expansion in renewable sources of energy, predominantly led by solar power.” No doubt, there has been a tangible improvement claimed in areas of electricity supply to citizens. However, there are quite a few cracks in the graph that need to be fixed if the graph must continue the trajectory.

Highlighting his view from the power trading aspect, Prabhajit Kumar Sarkar, Managing Director & CEO, Power Exchange India Limited feels “There has been a growing shift towards utilising market mechanisms for power transactions. Market mechanisms have, after all, ushered in transparency of price discovery, allowed equal access to the marketplace for all participants and ensured information symmetry for all.” Since the power markets in the country have demonstrated benefits for all over the last few years, it has helped foster the shift towards deepening it further through new types of transactions and opening up of existing segments.

Coming to the technology trends that further enhance the power sector, Chhaya Bhonsale, Chief – Technical Service, T&D, Tata Power highlight that migration toward the future transmission and distribution substation is taking place; because of the desire to bring more automation and intelligence to the power grid network, to address many utility concerns. “It includes how to reduce operational expenses to meet new regulatory requirements, increased reliability, early detection of faults and quick diagnosis and restoration, improved worker safety, and enhanced utilisation of grid infrastructure. This significantly drives the demand and growth of substation automation in the coming period.”

Attaining energy efficiency in electrical sector

According to Anil Saboo, Chairman & Managing director, Elektrolites Power Ltd., “Today, it’s a mandate for all manufacturers to reduce their costs, and with the adoption of digitalisation and newer technologies, they will be able to reduce their production costs as well as carbon emissions. So, this pandemic has really done a lot of good for all of us, because it has manufactured everybody else’s way of reducing their costs, and they are adapting.”

Sriram Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Fuji Electric, says “Our products leverage the latest in power semiconductor technology like IGBT, designed and manufactured by Fuji Electric in many of its power electronic platforms, like energy-efficient UPS and variable frequency drives. Fuji Electric is also a pioneer in renewable energy solutions with comprehensive offerings of Solar Inverters, Fuel Cells and Geo-Thermal Power Plants.

Smart and efficient lighting

Sharmila Kumbhat, Director, K-Lite Industries

This decade is going to witness phenomenal changes in the field of lighting. The last decade’s thrust was energy-saving measures, which gave rise to the LED lighting to replace all other conventional lighting. Application of solid state devices as a source of lighting has given way to new concepts in lighting control and automation. Gone are the days when our options were just limited to the lighting with GLS lamp or FTL lamp with just one-off control. Now, the general public are well informed and have started prescribing the lumen requirements, watt per lumen, lighting control, and above all IOT (Internet of things) compliance etc.

RE enabling efficient lighting

“Many countries have effective lighting strategies in place in the form of policies to phase-out inefficient incandescent lamps Looking at the strategies being in place to enable efficient lighting systems, Varinder Bhatia, Associate Vice President Havells India says, “Effective lighting is going to directly contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions, resulting into a more sustainable environment and a cost-effective transformation alternative across markets.”

Whereas, Rajesh Uttamchandani, Director, Syska Group, feels that the needs and preferences of consumers in terms of lighting have changed dramatically. The COVID pandemic has sparked interest in IoT-based smart products that provide a touch-free experience. “Smart lighting with sensors and AI-driven software provide an ease of access, allowing users to operate the product at any time and from any location, which is not only environmentally friendly but also protects users by eradicating the need for physical access.”

Safety aspects of cables and wires

There is a positive and growing demand for wires and cables. But when it comes to green, my question is how many people are familiar with the concept. When we talk about green wires and cables, RR Kabel are the only group of companies that provide 100 percent rich and green wires. 

When asked about developing solutions and finding the right support from the government to address the safety aspects, Shreegopal Kabra, Managing Director, RR Kabel Group says, “There’s only one solution that the government should create laws to address these issues on a regular basis. An appropriate and stringent law and regulation in place, along with specific norms will further ensure that these specifications are thoroughly followed.”

Coming to the disruptions pertaining to the cost and other allied complications, Bhushan Sawhney – Executive President & CBO (LDC), Polycab India says, “I don’t expect a disruption in case of the conductor because copper has been the most common conductor since inception, and it will continue to do so. However, as the copper prices are on a very steep rise, researchers are trying to develop alloys with the same conductivity as copper.”

Future of green India

This entire transition is going be a big challenge, as converting the entire process from fossil fuels production into generating renewable and sustainable energy is a critical task. Noting the same, Ganesh Kothawade adds, “With the growing economy and increasing population, we need to comprehend to the ever-growing demand for efficient power supply and accommodate relatable consumption to the users.”

When we say green, we must also look upon the increasing carbon footprints. Here, Chhaya Bhonsale explains that digitalisation provide both tangible benefits such as reduction in space, reduction in copper cabling, less environmental impact (CO₂foot print) and optimisation in resources as well as non-tangible benefits like  improved personal and equipment safety, improved asset performance, lower fire hazards due to reduction of conventional wiring  Reduction in Project Commissioning time and least forced outage. These benefits will certainly drive the demand for digitalisation of substation in India.

“Definitely, people are cost-conscious, and that’s actually something that all of us can support; as pandemic has hit various industries and people at large” says Rahul Kale, Founder & CEO, SunPower Renewables.  So it’s important to be conscious of about it. Another important thing is, we have reached grid parity, and the price of panels and lithium-ion batteries has dropped significantly to the place from where it started. We are now in a position where customers have come back to us and mentioned of being able to save over 70 percent of cost with solar.

Recycling Electronic and electrical waste

Sanjeev Prasad, Vice President & Plant Head – Power & Utilities, RIL – DMD First is accessibility. Secondly, we are driven by laws. So, we have to comply with the given regulations, which will further drive us towards sustainability. It’s also important for the business to become profitable, otherwise nobody will come forward to invest, and we will again be dependent on the government. These are the only two ways in which a business will get recycled. The recyclers and the government need to ensure that all the relevant information is available online and on other platforms that allow us to get through those providers.

Localisation in RE gets an upper hand with PLI Scheme

With the government’s push to boost localisation and domestic manufacturing under the PLI Scheme, we see an increase in demand for locally produced products and technologies. Here, according to Rajinder Kumar Kaura, CMD, Bergen Solar Power and Energy Ltd., “The PLI scheme for the complete supply chain, right from polysilicon to modules has attracted almost 6 bidders for 10GW of capacity. The government must also ensure that new and latest technologies are encouraged where Opex and LCOE are reduced.” Till the complete supply chain is not there, China will continue to arm-twist the Indian players in manufacturing, especially cell and module manufacturers.