Indian power industry needs to develop significant energy management capabilities to achieve RE targets.

- Karthik Krishnamurthi

Country Head, Marketing and Sales, Hitachi Energy India

The targets set by the government are quite ambitious. Do you feel these are realistic? Can you throw some light on the current scenario in terms of installed and operational capacities in the renewable segment?

Yes, India is well on track to achieve its renewable energy targets. At the COP26 climate summit, India has upgraded its 2030 target to 500 GW of renewable energy capacity from 450 GW and committed to reaching net-zero by 2070. According to MNRE, the installed renewable energy capacity at present is approximately 150 GW including large hydro projects, 31GW is under installation and 35GW is underbidding process. With consistent efforts and implementation of the right policies, India will achieve the renewable energy milestone of 200GW by 2022. Today, India stands at 4th position in the world in terms of installed renewable energy capacity, 5th in solar, and 4th in wind in terms of installed capacity. Through government support and the right investment climate, the road ahead needs further acceleration of these targets to help India ultimately achieve its renewable energy targets.

The GatiShakti programme seeks to enhance the renewable energy capacities. How do you assess the opportunities for growth of the sector? Can you share your views on how far we have managed to achieve success in the hybrid model?

Gati Shakti is a welcomeinitiative for the industry as it intends to augment infrastructure development in India. While the initiative is good, efforts and conversations are still ongoing to understand how best we can implement the Gati Shakti tool and the right mechanism to identify and resolve challenges in the process of building quality infrastructure. India needs enhanced connectivity where roads, rails, and ports are symbiotically interlinked and with the implementation of such schemes, it could surely provide a prominent boost to the economy.

How do you assess the steps taken by the government (encouraging MSMEs, Make in India, PLI, SGD, BCD, etc) to encourage domestic manufacturing in India?

The government of India is making continuous efforts for promoting local manufacturing and steps such as 'Make in India' and Atmanirbhar Bharatcan provide a fillip to this vision. This is also important from the perspective of reducing the dependency to achieve the ambitious clean energy targets set by the government of India. We need policies that incentivize partnerships, ensure a level-playing for all industry participants-big or small, ensuring better participation. With the right support from the government, we can soon be on the path to become a manufacturing hub for the world.

Can you share your insights on the challenges related to clean energy transition, integration through use of technology, grid connectivity, etc?

India is in a midst of an energy transition towards carbon neutrality and the country is striving for achieving the renewable energy target of 500 GW by 2030. This is required to meet India's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of achieving about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. To achieve this, the Indian power industry needs to develop significant energy management capabilities. We will require to consider investments in grid modernization to ensure a sustainable energy transition. This will entail the adoption of smart digital grid solutions to manage the risk of grid instability, AI-enabled technologies, and systems to improve overall operational performance and enable integrated planning, and a higher degree of customer engagement. We will also require significant amount of energy storage technology to manage the increased influx of renewables, especially wind and solar which bring tremendous challenges to operate the grid, primarily due to the intermittency associated with them. Unfortunately, the pandemic has set us some steps back. We need to build capacity, flexibility, and resilience to integrate increasing amounts of intermittent renewables and distributed energy.

Can you share Hitachi Energy's plans in India?

In November, we evolved to Hitachi Energy from Hitachi ABB Power Grids' in India.In our refreshed identity,we continue to stay committed  towards accelerating the clean energy transition in India. The stage is set for India's green energy revolution and we are optimistic of the opportunities the new identity will create. For Hitachi Energy, India is a key market for long-term business growth. In the next five years, Hitachi Energy aims to augment its grid integration portfolio through power quality solutions and system studies, supporting the modernization of grids. We aim to achieve 100 percent fossil-free electricity consumption by March 2022. We see tremendous potential in data centers, e-mobility, high-speed rail, renewable energy, and power quality. Additionally, we intend to introduce new products to capture a bigger share of the market. Our goal is to localize our portfolio to build indigenous capabilities. We will continue to make in India for India and for the rest of the world. We are geared up to advance a sustainable energy future, making energy systems more sustainable, flexible, and secure.

Hits: 98