Blogs

Introduction With the projected demand for Li-ion batteries set to reach 235 gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2030, recycling has become a focal point. This emphasis aims to ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials for cells and decrease reliance on imported resources. Extracting materials through recycling Li-ion batteries is more sustainable than mining. Moreover, the […]

Introduction India, as an agrarian nation, is witnessing a transformative shift in its agricultural landscape with the integration of renewable energy and productive use appliances. In the pursuit of sustainable practices, the adoption of clean energy solutions plays a pivotal role in enhancing agricultural productivity, reducing dependency on traditional power sources, and mitigating environmental impact. […]

Clean cooking, despite its significance, is often overlooked as a policy priority. It must take centre stage on the global energy-climate-development agenda for reasons that go beyond convenience or preference. One third of the global population which is approximately 2.4 billion people worldwide remain without access to clean cooking. In India, nearly 60 percent of the […]

Global mean temperatures are projected to increase by 3.7 to 4.8°C, which would lead to catastrophic and irreversible effects on humanity and Earth’s ecosystems. In December 2015, the first global agreement of its kind was made when governments committed to maintaining the global temperature within this 2°C limit, to keep the temperature rise to 1.5°C […]

Kenya’s domestic market is more than 56 million people and is considered one of East Africa’s core business and logistics hubs. Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy and central to the country’s development strategy. It accounts for 31.5% of Kenya’s GDP and employs 38% of the population.Despite this, food insecurity persists, with 4 million […]

Global energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain a significant threat to the climate due to their due to their magnitude and longevity. As per International Energy Agency (IEA) analysis[1], the total energy emissions increased to an all-time high of 41.3 Gt CO2-eq as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Global Energy GHG Emissions The emissions […]

The development of cold chain infrastructure is crucial for a country like India, which has a large agricultural sector and a significant need for efficient storage and transportation of perishable goods such as fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and pharmaceuticals. Government policies and initiatives play a key role in the large-scale development of cold chain infrastructure […]

Every year due to post-harvest losses, US$19.4 million worth of crops are wasted in India daily due to rejection at the farmgate and delays in the distribution process with significant impacts on the environment. Effective Cold Chain Infrastructure (CCI) is one intervention that could mitigate many of these challenges. India is the world’s highest milk […]

Climate finance refers to the financing needed to address the causes and impacts of climate change, including mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas or GHG emissions) and adaptation (managing the risks and impacts of climate change). The need for climate finance has grown as the world recognizes the urgent need to address the impacts of climate change, […]

The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently published a report on the global energy outlook as part of its World Energy Outlook 2022.The report highlights the global energy crisis, which has been triggered by the conflict in Ukraine, and has resulted in significant price increases due to uncertainties about supply security and affordability. This comes at […]

Cooking landscape in India Approximately 40% (2.8 billion people) of the global population still cooks with either wood, dung, coal, or charcoal. Nearly 84% of rural Indian households cook on stoves that use solid or biomass fuels. In India, women spend an hour every day collecting firewood. This time dedicated to collecting firewood and cooking […]

India stands strong in achieving universal access to electricity with almost 100% electrification by 2019. The national grid has played a very important role in improving this access, but its reliability continues to pose a challenge, and more so in semi-urban, rural and remote areas. Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) in the form of solar roof […]

Distribution Franchisee (DF) model has only recently picked traction since 2009 after successful demonstration by Torrent Power Ltd. at Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, which got operational in 2007. The success there has sparked private businesses interest into the sector with more than 30 corporates jumping into the fray. Many of the businesses comes from very diverse background […]

With ongoing operationalization of Distribution Franchisee (DF), one common question that keeps hitting again and again is ‘Why need of DF? What it can do, which utility cannot or have not?’. While answer to this is pretty subjective, I would share my opinion in 3 breakups Key issues that are affecting profitability of distribution utility […]

An obvious question with so much projected on Distribution Franchisee (DF) model is: What real gains both the utility and end-consumers could expect coming out of the Distribution Franchisee model? While Bhiwandi implementation of Distribution Franchisee has shown increased consumer satisfaction for improved service levels, but it is yet to be proved conclusively that the […]

A recent publication from Prayas on ‘Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Program – Urgent need for mid-course correction‘ gave a very good overview of RGGVY program, its features and progress. Some key observations made: 2. Rs. 26000 cr. already spent in last 6 years since 2005 and estimated another same amount to be spent (totaling to Rs. 52000 cr.) for coverage of […]

pManifold as Knowledge Partner to IIES 2011 organized a workshop on ‘Solar PV System – Technology, Risks, Manufacturing, EPC, O&M, Investment’. The workshop brought best Industry experts and participants through out the country. pManifold Indis_Solar PV_IIES_Workshop_report View more presentations from pManifold Topics and brief content covered in the workshop Speakers of the workshop Akash – CEO, Indis EnergyK.E. Raghunathan – […]

The guidelines for second batch under Phase I of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) were announced recently by Ministry of New and Renewable Eneergy (MNRE) . The excerpts of the guidelines are captured in our previous blog. To give strong impetus in promoting domestic manufacturing, the developers are expected to procure their project components from domestic […]

MNRE has recently released the list of all grid operating solar PV projects in India (latest updated as on July 2011. See the detailed list here and also below). The Project Developers for these cumulative 45.5MW capacity plants were: With increasing Solar EPC and manufacturing experience building in Indian players, MNRE has also published a performance report on 6 grid […]

A comparative view of top level findings is shown here, developed using the location specific reports of Shajapur, Ujjain & Dewas available here along with 6 other districts in Madhya Pradesh (MP). See our earlier blog: The analysis shows that in the above 3 districts, a substantial percentage of dissatisfaction in Customers is coming due to 2 […]

This is the summary of results from the top level analysis, developed using the ‘Consolidated Report’ of all the 9 districts in Madhya Pradesh (MP). Across all 9 districts, expectations of customers based on certain factors like Customer Service, Power Quality & Reliability and Price are significantly leading to high Dissatisfaction among all categories of […]

DIRECTIVE The Ministry of Power Govt. of India issued a directives for implementation in the all States of India, after seeking consultation with Ministry of Law and Justice and said that, “Section 42(ii) read with the first and fifth proviso is a self-contained code with regard to consumers who required the supply of electricity of […]

Our recent blog ‘Key comparison of revised RFPs for Jharkhand Distribution Franchisees’ covered the baseline comparison between old and revised RFPs for 3 forthcoming Power Distribution Franchisees in Jharkhand – Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur. JSEB has given minimum benchmark input price curve for all the regions, mandating bidders to bid higher than given price curve for all […]

This is a consolidation of our previous blogs, focussed more to help the current bidders for Madhya Pradesh DF bids. Bidders Perspective Utility and Regulators perspective Customer perspective Distribution Model perspective         Also pManifold organised a workshop Utility Monitoring and Power Distribution Franchisee: Enhancing SEB’s Performance  Also we have detailed local intelligence reports on […]

Recently, BSEB has released revised RFPs for Power Distribution Franchisee for 4 districts in Bihar – PESU, Muzaffarpur, Gaya and Bhagalpur. pManifold’s DF Attractiveness Matrix, provides a quick comparative study on key decision parameters for Bihar 4 DFs with reference to other states DFs like for Nagpur, Agra, Gwalior and Jamshedpur. (click on the image to see enlarged […]

Mr. Amulya Charan, Chief Mentor, Power Trading and Advocacy at Tata Power has 22+ years of experience in the Indian Power Sector, spanning Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Trading. With senior Mgmt. roles at NTPC, Power Grid, Tata Power Ltd., he was ex- MD at Tata Power Trading Company Ltd for four years. Mr. Charan shared following views in recent […]

Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB), after a long gap of nearly 2 years has come back, issuing revised Request for Proposal (RFP) for appointment of Distribution Franchisee for following areas/regions: At last, BSEB got a final go ahead from the High Court to re-initiate its privatization initiative for Power supply, which went into long litigation […]

Ease of doing Distribution Franchisee business – PESU Local Intelligence Apart from technical & financial parameters it is important for the bidders to evaluate the local intelligence for its operation & ease of setting up a business. pManifold has developed a process to research on the local intelligence through its network & secondary research to provide […]

Gaya is located at 24.78°N 85.0°E. Gaya is the second largest city of Bihar. Gaya is 100 kilometers south of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Situated on the banks of Phalgu. It is surrounded by small rocky hills by three sides and the river flowing on the fourth (eastern) side. Region Gaya Municipal Corporation […]

Muzaffarpur located at  26°07?N 85°24?E. The district occupies an area of 3173 km. Muzaffarpur lies between the Burhi Gandak River and Furdoo nallah. Muzaffarpur is one of the many gateways to Nepal. Region Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation Muzaffarpur Municipal Corporation No. of Household 650,882(2001) Male population 2,517,500 Female population 2,261,110 Total population 4,778,610 Density(peoples/sq.km) 1,506 Slum population 77456 […]

About the Client CEO of an Environment management company with 10 business verticals Client Problem CEO wanted to execute a structured exercise for the company’s long term strategic planning involving 10 business unit heads to align individual business unit goals with organizational goals, structure and policies. The Solution pManifold Proposition Results / Benefit to Client […]

There has been a huge hue and cry about the unavailability of consumer data with the Indian utilities. However, the question that needs to be asked is that whether we have really made an effort to collect the right data set? And if we have, do we have the processes to continuously update the database […]

As the operator tries rolling out the services, the foremost task at-hand is creating the base-line for the utility. This, typically, is collated using a consumer survey called consumer indexing (CI). The operator main aim is to collect the information required for consumer demography and demand estimation. The figure below shows the variety of data […]

The high risks in the complex, unpredictable and highly political process of water sector reforms are unavoidable given the “essential goods” perception of water. However, what the utility operators need to understand is that investing time and money in “strategic communications” early in the engagement of water reforms and that it leads to a much […]

Mr. Ajai Nirula, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Tata Power – Delhi Distribution Limited (TP-DDL) was one of the sessions moderator in recently concluded IUKAN 2013. As a veteran in the Power industry, he shared his inputs on various distribution reforms and the challenges associated with it. Q1) What are the current trends in PPP models for Power Utilities […]

Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd. (PGVCL), the largest Power Distribution Utility, compared to other distribution utilities in Gujarat, is serving more than 47 lakhs customers, across 8 districts and 44 divisions. The utility PGVCL has considerable losses (both Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) and Transmission & Distribution (T&D)) compared to other utilities and hence, is […]

One recent success for Distribution Franchisee model in the country was first debt funding to Essel DF project at Nagpur. SBI Caps was involved in Debt Syndication partner role. Rahul Bagdia from pManifold Team recently spoke to Mr. Sudarshan Mohotta, VP Project Advisory & Structured Finance Division, SBI Capital Markets. Mr. Mohotta and his team were instrumental in […]

While Indian Discoms continue to focus on AT&C loss reduction, which in many cases stands to the order of greater than 60%, and lot of private efforts is getting attracted in, it is clear that this is a massive Energy Efficiency (EE) drive. There are various talked instruments for EE financing, but not much has been […]

Mr. Ajoy Mehta, MD, MSEDCL, in a recent Business Technology Conclave of IUKAN extended strong support to Power Distribution Franchisee model, for country to build sustainable power utilities. He shared his experience and vision for further strengthening of the Power DF model. A brief excerpt in form of Q&As from his Vision session at IUKAN is shared […]

Bihar is one of the fastest growing States in the Country and has acquired considerable attention throughout the country and even abroad for its remarkable performance on the development front. The requirement for an enhanced Transmission and Distribution (T&D) infrastructure has ensured a firm commitment from the State Government, for transforming the present power sector […]

Noida Power Company Ltd (NPCL), a joint venture between the RP-Sajiv Goenka Group, a leading business house in India and Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, distributes power in Greater Noida, near Delhi in Uttar Pradesh. The Company started its operations in December 1993 under a 30-year license from U.P. Government and is among the leading […]

Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI) aims to create and build awareness on issues related to Power Quality (PQ). APQI was ‘Power Quality’ partner to IUKAN 2014 earlier this year. The group continues spreading the essential message of PQ to various stakeholders, helping businesses and industries with improved understanding and insights. Recently, they published a very interesting […]

The Ministry of Power’s financial restructuring plan has made the introduction of private participation in distribution as one of the mandatory conditions for availing the benefits of scheme (as a result of high AT&C losses, low IT involvement and huge financial losses). Whilst State Governments’ (except Delhi and Odisha) have not undertaken privatisation of Discoms, […]

India and most developing countries continue to struggle for 24×7 power supply, good Power Quality (PQ) environment, and Energy Efficient (EE) economy. See APQI earlier blog that tries to quantify economic impact from poor PQ environment – Are developing economies at risk due to power quality issues and challenges? Another follow-up question will be WHO IS […]

The Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Limited (UGVCL), a second largest state discom in Gujarat serving almost 2.9 million customers, has its network spread across an area of 49,950 Sq. Km. It was the rated the second best state power distribution utility, by the Ministry of Power (MoP), with due recognition to its excellent performance in […]

The Electricity (Amendment) Act, 2014 has envisaged separation of carriage (distribution network licensee) and content (electricity supply licensee). Rationale is to bring multiple supply licensees to increase competition and choice to end-customers, and drive improved efficiency and customer services. The network will be owned and managed by one preferably State agency, and will be regulated. […]

The Indian Power Distribution landscape is changing rapidly and going through various developments and reforms. In addition to high AT&C losses, the sector is struggling with increasing share of power purchase costs and financial constraints. Further, unforeseen shortages of fuel and poor planning by power distribution companies (discoms) has led to a steep rise in […]

There has been a continuous and growing interest for grid connected solar rooftops across India. This is primarily due to shift in consumer behaviour across all consumer categories (residential, industrial, commercial, etc.). The consumer is not just interested in consuming electricity but also producing it. By installing solar in their own premise, they can now […]

India has a momentum with National Solar Mission with a goal of 40 GW IN 2022 for rooftop and recently, the goal for solar is extended to 100 GW in 2022. India and France launched International Solar Alliance to boost solar energy in 121 countries with an aim to deliberate on a finance mechanism for […]

Indian Power market has fast changed and further evolving post unbundling reforms. There is rapid emergence of various private/PPP models across Power Distribution. There is high attractiveness of the end B2C Power Distribution business, as it brings cash for all other businesses in the value chain. The recent surgence of Franchisee models in Distribution has […]

Some recent discussion on best practices at Linkedin Power Distribution Franchisee group have started discussing the role of Customers in helping reduce AT&C losses. Some key excerpts: ” …. I strongly feel that key factor for reduction of AT&C loss is very much linked with consumer care initiatives and winning consumer confidence. With the support of consumer group one can […]

Source: Mr. Hemant Diddee, Heta DataIn Operating Distribution Franchisee are of the opinion that there is need of strong technical due diligence of Distribution network and equipment to arrive at realistic estimation of investment needed in infrastructure & assets. Some recent discussion points in this regard are: “…..Due-Diligence is of utmost important, as in case of Agra, the […]

Bhiwandi, Maharashtra saw the first successful pilot of Power Distribution Franchisee (DF), with Torrent Power Ltd. (TPL) as selected Franchisee and MSEDCL the original licensee. The model adopted was Input based franchisee – with TPL agreeing to purchase power from MSEDCL at the input point to Bhiwandi circle at year-wise fixed input energy rate (Rs./kWh) for a contract period […]

There are ongoing lot of controversies about Power Distribution Franchisee (DF) applications and transparency of businesses running them. While some of them are definitely right and need to be intervened, but many of them are arising from missing information. Our earlier blog ‘Lack of good baseline data & reporting leads to irrational Power Franchisee bidding‘ […]

The current approach to furnish baseline information for Distribution Franchisee (DF) RFP undertaken by the utility has following limitations: It is suggested that the utility appoints a third party to do a good baseline data preparation – integrating real-time measurements and all secondary data already with the utility. This information could go as common information […]