“We need to look into a way forward to open access and have a plausible distribution licensing system with multiple licensing systems to usher competition”, says H E Shri VP Singh Badnore Hon’ble Governor of Punjab
“A sustainable business models should be developed based on holistic benefits of Smart Grid implementation,” states Shri RK Verma, Chairperson, CEA
IEEMA organized the 7th edition of Metering India seminar on 6th and 7th April 2017 at Hotel Le Meridian, New Delhi. The Chief Guests of the Conference were H E Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Shri V P Singh Badnore. Other dignitaries present on the occasion were Shri R K Verma, Chairperson CEA, Ms. Ritu Maheshwari, CEO-RECTPCL, Mr. Richard Schomberg, Chairperson –System Committee, Smart Energy, IEC.The total number of participants during the seminar was 510 out of which 157 delegates were from 49 utilities across India. The
The total number of participants during the seminar was 510 out of which 157 delegates were from 49 utilities across India. The two-day event focused on diverse perspectives and experiences in order to add tremendous value to the participating delegates through this collective knowledge sharing process, that included all aspects of a metering domain like smart meters, communication technologies, energy conservation, IT infrastructure, and smart meter pilot roll-out so far etc.
The development of smart meters is a key component of grid modernization. Smart meters are used for monitoring the energy usages of consumers by recording time-differentiated energy consumption. Smart meters not only help consumers in managing their power demand but also assist distributing companies in detecting and locating outages and ensuring fast restoration of systems, monitoring the quality of electricity supply, and identifying meter tampering among other things. Owing to these functionalities, smart meters also form a vital component of advanced metering infrastructure.
METERING INDIA has catered to diversified themes in the past like “Revenue Management” to “IT in Metering for Efficient Power Distribution”, “Smart Indian Dimension”, etc. Today, ‘smart’ features are impacting our lives like never before. The awareness related to resource conservation in every form has taken over our lives like never before. At this juncture, it is imperative for us to take a stock of smartness for sustainability. ‘Metering India 2017… Towards Smart and Sustainable Utilities’ targets to explore the use of ICT to make Indian power utilities more sustainable. This seminar welcomed global thought processes on making Indian utilities sustainable through the deployment of smart technology.
The Seminar had a session named “Expert Speak” where Shri Arvind Gupta, Head and co-founder Digital India Foundation, Cdr Manish Tiwari, Chief Information Security officer, Microsoft and Shri Rritu Saurabha, Executive Vice President, Project finance Yes Bank expressed their views.
A special Session on Policy “Policy 360 degree for Distribution eco-system” was chaired by Shri Ghanshyam Prasad, Chief Engineer, CEA. The other participant of the Session were Shri Vishal Kapoor, Director Distribution, MoP, Shri A. K Mishra -Director –NSGM, Shri Rajesh Bansal, BSES and Shri Babu Babel, Past President, IEEMA
The panel discussion saw the participation of Dr. A.K Verma – Jt. Secretary Distribution Ministry of Power, GoI, Shri Vikram Kapur, IAS, Principal Secretary, Energy, Saxena, Government of Tamil Nadu, Shri A.K Bohra, MD-JVVNL, Shri Saxena, Director, BSES, Mr. Richard Schomberg, Chairperson -SyC Smart Energy, IEC.
Apart from above Metering India 2017, had five Sessions in which 21 papers on various topics was presented.
Session I Making Utilities Sustainable
Session II Innovative Ideas
Session III Case Studies – AMI rollout
Session V Journey of Smart Metering
Session VI: Utility Perspective on Smart Grid Implementation
Speaking on the occasion, H E Shri VP Singh Badnore Hon’ble Governor of Punjab said, “The real challenge is the distribution sector. Financial weak discoms are the weakest link and unfortunately, the sector is ailing and is not in a good shape. Thus it is required to review the Electricity Act 2003 with a special focus on distribution. We need to strengthen and give more autonomy to SERC and CERC and look into a way forward to open access and have a plausible distribution licensing system with multiple licensing systems to ushering competition.”
Mr. Jitendra Agarwal, Chairman – Meter Division, IEEMA added, “Metering India 2017… Towards Smart and Sustainable Utilities aims at showcasing the global thought processes of the best minds in our ecosystem from policy, industry, utilities, regulatory, testing laboratories etc in order to cater to the blazing issues faced by various stakeholders. The conference is not only contributing towards making Utilities smart and sustainable but also enabling them to deploy resilient energy infrastructure in the nation.”
