The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is one of the world’s leading professional societies for engineering and technology community, with over 160,000 members in 127 countries and offices across the world (10,000 plus members in India). The institution provides a global knowledge network to facilitate the exchange of ideas and promote the positive role of science, engineering and technology in the world.
IET India has formed the Power Engineers Panel to create a platform to bring together stakeholders from the industry, education institutions, academicians etc to work together to make the industry efficient and robust. This panel aims to look at the core issues which hinders the growth of the power industry in India such as the dearth of skilled manpower in this sector.
Prakash Nayak, Chairman of the IET Power Panel and formerly with ABB Limited shares his insights on renewable sector in India and its growth and scope of IET panel.
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What is the current scenario of renewable energy sector in India?
The share of renewable energy is close to 12% of total installed power capacity in the country today. Renewable energy scenario is mixed as some states are progressing well while some are lagging behind. Few states have taken bold steps bringing in the bulk implementation; some others have got in to legal issues. Some are yet to start their journey in RE. Net metering as an initiative to drive Renewable Energy Penetration, particularly in Solar has also been implemented by some states.
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Please expand on the scope of the IET Power Engineers panel?
The IET Power Panel includes a group of like-minded professionals including subject matter experts in the area of power and renewable energy. We work with individuals and organisations to help them apply core power engineering knowledge gained during the academic career phase in to practice, as there are huge opportunities ahead for them. The task of getting young engineers interested in core engineering is a tough task with lucrative IT jobs waiting for them. Our other activities include industry- academia connect through internships, guest lecture, conference, Panel discussions etc. Considering the importance of solar energy for a country like India, where there is untapped Renewable Energy potential, we have created a Solar Panel also. We are also planning a large high profile and high impact international conference focused on Distribution jointly with the IET’s partner body, IEEMA.
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What according to you are the core issues hindering the growth of the power sector in India?
The core issues in my opinion is inadequate capacity i.e. demand- supply gap which at present is about 9% The. Financial status of the state electricity utilities and high AT&C losses in many state is also a challenge. Delayed implementation of RE Policy across all the states has been a deterrent. Availability of Coal for running the existing plants and initiation of new plants is also a challenge.
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What are the steps needed to encourage clean & green technology in the power sector?
In my opinion best option is to remove the subsidy as this hinders the growth, due to poor administration mechanisms. What is required is effective implementation of Net Metering and Income tax benefits for Individual and Commercial establishments.Renewable integration can be made possible, by improved policy guidelines as well as adapting technological enhancement in the grid for seamless integration of Demand side to Generation, Distributed generation etc. Bulk energy storage technologies and pilot project will be requirement for variable nature of RE energy to be integrated with the Electricity Grid.
About Prakash Nayak
Prakash Nayak is currently the Chairman of the Power Panel, The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). At IET, Prakash comes with over 31 years of experience from power and automation technology area and has been serving the society by addressing the human resource requirement in the power sector and guiding the students and educating them about the opportunities available in the energy/power sector.
During his career, he has worked in the automobile industry as well as for the central government. He has been with ABB Limited since 1984 till September 2011, and has served the company in different capacities, most recently as head of ABB Global Industries and Services Limited and also Director of R&D for ABB in India. Prior to this, Prakash held various management positions in ABB including running R&D center in India, Power System Automation business in India.
He has also been associated with Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), India since 1990 and was engaged in the microprocessor / microcontroller based instruments development work for power sector which includes remote meter reading, remote load control etc. He was a part of global management team of Power System Automation and head of Smart Grid for India operations.
Prakash obtained his graduation in Electronics & Telecommunication and post-graduation in Electronics Design Technology from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
