TERI CBS Thought Leadership Webinar: Increasing RE procurement by Commercial & Industrial sector: Challenges & Opportunities
The TERI CBS Thought Leadership Webinar on "Increasing RE procurement by C&I Sector: Challenges and Opportunities" was organised on 5 March from 11:30 am to 01:00 pm
On 5th March 2021, 11:30 AM to 01:00 PM IST
The Thought Leadership Webinar was held as a part of TERI's Chief Sustainability Officers' Meet. The webinar included an in-conversation session of Rahul Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, Hero Future Energies and Dr Ashvini Kumar, Senior Director, TERI, followed by a panel discussion.
Mr Munjal shared his perspectives on promotion of futuristic technologies and building energy storage infrastructure for achieving 40% of non-fossil fuel based power by 2040. He said "Businesses have realised the importance of ESG goals, sustainability and net-zero commitments. The market forces will drive the Indian industry forward. There exists a plethora of options that can be leveraged by C&I sector to procure renewables in their portfolios. The future holds immense opportunities in store for start-ups and entrepreneurs as they can offer services using new technologies like machine learning, Artificial intelligence etc. and contribute to effectiveness of energy system and RE outputs." He stressed on creating a long-term forward looking approach for the sector by investing in research and development. He also laid emphasis on a five-year policy framework for investors, adoption of electricity act, and privatisation of discoms to create a conducive environment for renewables to achieve scale. During the session, Dr Kumar shared some thought provoking ideas for India's leadership role in renewable energy and discussed the importance of the One Sun, One World and One Grid Initiative (OSOWOG) with Mr Munjal. With its unprecedented scale, the initiative has the potential to accelerate the journey to a net-zero future. He reiterated the significance of domestic manufacturing and government's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat, and the pivotal role of renewables in meeting the twin goals of achieving the government's vision and contributing to sustainable recovery of businesses.
Jeevan Kumar Jethani, Director, MNRE, in his special address, stated the importance of net metering regulations for C&I sector and group captive models for MSME clusters. He reiterated the significance of open access, public private partnerships and capacity building of state agencies like training of Discom officers to drive ease of adoption of renewables. He said "MNRE is introducing innovative instruments like ISTS waiver, round the clock power, hybrid policy and repowering policies. There is an economic case for solar thermals which can be explored by the industrial sector." He also highlighted new initiatives to address emerging challenges with falling costs of renewables. He discussed the idea of bundling of bids that can help distribution companies to buy renewables and expand the share of renewables in their basket.
The technical panel discussion following the in-conversation session was moderated by Dr Divya Sharma, Executive Director at The Climate Group. The panellists included representatives from JCB India Limited, PTC India Limited, Amazon, and Hero Future Energies.
The panellists discussed the importance of integrating sustainability goals in business strategies in the post pandemic era. A number of businesses, like Amazon, have committed to net-zero targets by 2040 and adoption of renewables is a favourable option for the C&I sector to manage energy demand and costs of electricity consumption. The panellists deliberated on long-term stability of regulatory announcements, flexibility of options for wheeling and banking, market mechanisms and integrating storage technologies with renewables. They also reflected on global models that can be introduced to unlock RE demand and opportunities for C&I sector.
The panel discussion was followed by question and answers round with participants. The event was live streamed on YouTube with over 200 views.
