Foreign alliance to improve India’s power grid capacity

"According to ISGF’s projections, a typical city of 5-10 lakhs population would need nearly Rs.300 – 500 crore for upgrading the electricity grid."  Deepak Kumar | The Dollar Business

India’s market for power grid is projected to touch Rs.50,000 crore over the next four to five years.

  More foreign collaboration in the areas of smart grid technology will help India efficiently execute its smart grid projects, thereby resolving the country’s prolonged energy woes.   “Our first priority is to provide electricity to people. For this we need to have advance technology.  Although we are making steady progress in expanding and building smart grid in the country, any international collaboration will significantly add to our progress,” said Reji Kumar Pillai, President, India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF). Pillai underlined that the developed countries such as the US, Germany, the UK and Korea have been able to develop modern technology to ensure 24×7 electricity for their people. And India, in collaboration with experts of these nations, is undertaking similar initiatives to provide 24×7 uninterrupted power supply to its people. India’s market for power grid is projected to touch Rs. 50,000 crore over the next four to five years. It would be further funnelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of establishing 100 smart cities as well as 500 smart towns. To successfully realise this dream, the government will need to strengthen electrical network, underground cable in strategic location, distribution network, rooftop solar integration and smart metering among others. According to ISGF’s projections, a typical city of 5-10 lakhs population would need nearly Rs.300 - 500 crore for upgrading the electricity grid. "Majority of the cities and towns have very high levels of network losses and other inefficiencies in their electric grids. Efforts are being made to develop business models in which government or utilities need not make upfront investments in implementation of smart grids," Pillai said. ISGF has been closely working with the Power Ministry, regulatory commission, state utilities, stakeholders and foreign companies to accelerate construction of smart grid in India. The coming month, ISGF is organising an India Smart Grid Week in New Delhi with an effort to project India’s power sector as a potential investment destination.

February 23, 2016 | 06:30pm IST