Bhopal, June 8, 2023: APAC News Network in association with Schneider Electric & AVEVA today hosted the 4th Sustainable Energy Conclave – Madhya Pradesh Chapter. The objective of the conference was to highlight the milestones of the new energy landscape including greening the grid to support India’s carbon neutral and net zero goals.
With increasing urbanization and renewable energy expansion, the transformation of electricity distribution and generation become imperative. Grids play a central role in sustainability, and their digitization is key to driving the greening of the power sector.
The chief guest of the session was Raghuraj Madhav Rajendran, IAS, Managing Director, M.P. Power Management Co. Ltd., Govt of Madhya Pradesh. The keynote addresses were delivered by Sanjay Kumar Bhagwatkar, CGM, Madhya Pradesh Poorv Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Co. Ltd, and Anurag Shukla, Additional General Manager, BHEL, Bhopal. Sanjay Sudhakaran, Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited also joined the discussion.
Emphasizing the need for envisioning a new energy landscape, Raghuraj Madhav Rajendran, IAS, Managing Director, M.P. Power Management Co. Ltd., Govt of Madhya Pradesh said, “Having a sustainable energy ecosystem also depends on financial sustainability and cultural sustainability. We should also deeply think about energy security, energy justice, and energy discretion and all stakeholders are making conscious efforts to address these aspects. Today, Consumers are turning to prosumers and distribution companies should turn to distributed generation of power mechanisms.”
Highlighting the role of enhancing grid resilience for achieving the climate targets, Sanjay Sudhakaran, Managing Director, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Limited said, “To address the evolving needs of future generations, it is imperative that we embrace innovation and digitization across our infrastructure. By transitioning our grids to greener solutions, we not only contribute to the achievement of Net-Zero emissions but also become advocates for a sustainable planet, effectively becoming Green Yodhas. Schneider Electric, we are driven by a vision to assist our customers in designing, operating, and maintaining grid infrastructure that ensures low-carbon outcomes. Our focus lies in enabling sustainable, renewable, and decentralized grids, which serve as the foundation for a greener world in the coming years.”
By embracing digitization, smart grids can effectively utilize digital twin solutions, significantly improving the planning and construction phases. Furthermore, digitization enables efficient management and distribution of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydrogen.
Leveraging energy storage systems (ESS) and Microgrid technologies, smart grids effectively balance the demand and supply dynamics within the evolving energy landscape.
The various incomes in Madhya Pradesh have aggressively adopted IT to streamline most of their operations. Says Abhishek Martand, GM–IT, MP Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Co, Lts., “We have set up our own central level data center through which we now manage billing of 53 lakh consumers across 16 districts of M. In fact, 80% of the total payment collection is being done online and the entire bill distribution is also being done online,” he added.
Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran C operates fully functional SCADA-based systems in Bhopal and Gwalior districts. However, Martand reiterates not only externally, but even internally they have deployed IT to a significant extent. “We were the first public utility company to start Aadhar-based attendance, then turned into selfie-based attendance and finally into face recognition attendance,” he informed.
Sanjay Kumar Bhagwatkar, CGM, MP Poorv Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Co, Ltd informed that they have completely stopped distributing paper bills. “In addition, 100% of our payments come online. Our earlier billing cycle used to be 40-45 days and that has been reduced to 25 days by automation.” The disco has also set up a centralized call center to lodge all disputes and complaints by consumers by simply calling 1912 and logging the grievance. It was one of the first utility providers in the country which surveyed all consumer locations, geo-tagged them all, and captured the essential details in QR codes.
On the other hand, Sanghamitra Mohanty, Co-Founder of APAC News Network stated that as the organizer and host of this conclave, we recognize the importance of collaborating with the public sector and industry to address critical issues such as energy efficiency and sustainability. We also believe that technology must be harnessed across all sectors to build a sustainable energy ecosystem. We are honored to collaborate with the Government of Madhya Pradesh for this event and look forward to more such collaborations in the future.
