Strategic planning in UDAY 2.0 will obviate DISCOMs economic issues

Reduce the inefficiency of the DISCOMs and let them be privatised with due regulations for monitoring.

Discussing various aspects of the available government schemes for the DISCOMs, Lt. Col. Monish Ahuja (Retd), Managing Director, PRESPL, in an interaction with Megha Iyer of EPR ideates on how the DISCOMs can deliver an efficient supply under UDAY 2.0 and subsequently reduce their debt burden.

Moving away from generation and focusing on supply. Yourtake?
I will restrict my answers focused to Bio-energy sector. One of the key sustainable drivers for a project is the availability of bio-mass (raw materials) and unless we start focusing on that none of the projects related to biomass power generation would be successful. If you look atthe available data, it is close to 4000 MW of biomass IPPs -generation based power plants, and almost 80-85 percent of these projects are NPAs (non-performing assets); and they fall under NPAs because of one major reason which is non-availability of bio-mass in the expected price range. This means nobody has paid due attention to look at supply chain management, which is a problem that need to be addressed. We, at PRESPL, address these problems. This is a very pertinent question, to which I would say that shifting our focus from generation to supply is very important. If we have robust supply chain, then multiple uses of the same raw materials come up in projects like generations, bio-fuels, co-generation plants, schemed utility heat plants etc. So, yes, we have to move from generation to supply.

Would this move to focus on supply, will bring any relief to the debts?
According to a recent a government mandate, all coal based power plants would have 10 percent mix of co-firing bio-mass. It is the supply of new generation feedstock and multiple projects that has to come up, along with new investments or funding. Once you look at complete circular economy of the bio-mass, to move ahead with supplying to the NTPC’s of the world or the cold based power plant, you will realise that the concern here is how the suppliers will be paid, especially, when the DISCOMs areat stress level following the non-payment issues.In such situations, government must provide some solutions.

Government has made several attempts to improve the DISCOMs’ economic health; even the previous government made several attempts where they introduced certain schemes like UDAY scheme which didn’t subsequently improve the health of DISCOMs. Now, to support the generation and supply, the government has come up with a new LC mechanism, where the DISCOMs are mandated to give LCs to the generators. This is good from a solution point for the next generation but what about the existing ones, in terms of payment defaults of DISCOMs for power generators.

The solution is to look at alternate uses of renewable energy to achieve our targets of sustainability, carbon reduction. So, if you look at the entire paradigm of energy, it is not only electricity, butheating, cooling, transportation fuel, aviation fuel, among others. So, let us look at the other mix which can go faster than renewables, in terms of electricity. Secondly, while talking about the DISCOMs, if you look at electricity as a mix, it is hardly around 20 per cent to 22 per cent, so if we focus to balance the rest of 80 per cent, then we will be able to achieve what we are looking as goals for our country.

What policy or tariff changes are you expecting to come under the UDAY 2.0 as it is supposedly aimed at improving operations?

DISCOMs are facing one of the greatest threats of cyber attack. On the wake of this, how is an efficient supply possible?
Today, IT security and issues of cyber attack are common featuresin terms of engagement of different countries. Hackers or certain set of people want disruptions in business. Now, necessarily, the IT network and systems have to be built in, and we need to have new generation technologies of AI, block chain or upgradation of IT system to be able to withstand the IT attacks. We cannot say we are in a primitive IT system and we are open and susceptible to attacks; that time has changed. So, the best available services need tobe hired and implemented and other key part is, once this is done thereis also aconstant need for upgradation. By the time we start acting on upgradation, we realise that the damage is already done.

What are your thoughts on how to curb off such attac ks?
There has to be a constant upgradation of system, which should be looked upon. Moreover, we need to have set of systems or a team to monitor such incidents, only then we will be able to avoid such attacks.If we look at our advisories, they might not have ability to fight the full-fledged war, but for them this is something cost effective to do and will push back Indian/state economy by multiple notches. I think it’s imperative that we invest in these things. Also, we must believe and follow the mechanism of ‘prevention is better than cure’ to be able secure our network.

What kind of infrastructure should be in place for an efficient supply?
The infrastructure that needs to be in place should include IT framework network and 24/7 control and monitoring mechanism.

Lt. Col. Monish Ahuja (Retd), Managing Director, PRESPL