pManifold as Knowledge Partner to IIES 2011 organized a workshop on ‘Utility Monitoring & Distribution Power Franchise – Enhancing SEB’s Performance’. The workshop was co-chaired with domain experts Mr. Murhari Kele, Supt. Engg. MSEDCL, Nagpur and Mr. Prabhakar Kukde, Ex-Direcor, Tata Power.

Speakers who participated in this workshop

1. Rahul Bagdia – Director, pManifold Business Solutions
2. Murhari Kele – Supt. Engg. MSEDCL, Nagpur
3. H.R. Venkatesh – Head Marketing, PRDC
4. Prasad Sutaone – DGM, GTL Ltd.
5. Y.S. Butola – AGM, NDPL
6. Hemant Diddee – Founder, Heta Datain
7. Pratap Dhumale- Project Coordinator, L&T
8. Kamal Maheshwari – VP, SPANCO Ltd.

Topics covered

1. Status quo and impact of DF
2. Issues w/ DF – Utilities perspective
3. KPIs of Utility’s Performance
4. Techno-business Parameterization of DF (Bidders perspective)
5. Best practices in DF Implementation – Techno/Commercial
6. Best practices in DF Implementation – HR/soft issues
7. Real-Time Monitoring of Utility sub-station
8. Diagnostics & Prognostics in Distribution Monitoring
9. R-APDRP implementation – IT, Automation, AMI
10. ERP/IT Integration – Smart Grid Road Map

The workshop spanned following discussions with relevant stakeholders (utility – MSEDCL, NDPL; Distribution franchisees – GTL, SPANCO; policy makers, bidders, consultants, vendors, media and others) with practical sharing of case studies of implementation in Nagpur, Bhiwandi and Aurangabad:

1. Value chain and impact of Distribution Power Franchisee – stakeholders, business opportunities, market size
2. Stakeholders alignment issues for Utility’s and Distribution Franchisee’s performance
3. Issues to be solved for scale-up of Distribution Franchisee
4. Perspective of Utility / DISCOM towards Distribution Franchisee
5. Perspective of bidders – more rationale Distribution Franchisee bidding
6. Best practices sharing in distribution through case studies – both technical and soft sides
7. Real-time monitoring of distribution network
8. R-APDRP integration – issues of capacity building, change management and stakeholder engagement to be resolved for true realization of utility’s enhanced performance
9. IT road-map for Utilities in India – realistic smart grid vision
10. Distribution Franchisee vs. full privatization of distribution vs. co-existence of utility + Franchisee
11. Investment considerations for entry into Distribution Franchisee business – portfolio leverage, capex considerations, operational competencies etc.