IEEE Conference addresses India's power self-sufficiency.
Press Release Summary:
Experts discussed India's energy scenario and way to self-sufficiency at IEEE's Power and Energy Society's PowerCon 2008. Various topics were included under the theme, Technological advancements for the development of the power sector, including strategies for future energy challenges to India's energy security, discussed by Wanda K. Reder. Also touched upon were business opportunities from efficient lighting systems and energy conservation to manufacturing, among others.
Original Press Release:
IEEE Supports India's Need for Power Self-Sufficiency
Advocates New Philosophy in Electric Power System Planning
NEW DELHI, India, Oct. 14 / / - IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society, today discussed India's energy scenario and India's way to self-sufficiency using IEEE's Power and Energy Society's (PES) PowerCon 2008 as the backdrop.
Experts attending PowerCon 2008 discussed and debated various topics under the theme "Technological advancements for the development of the power sector".
Prof. Saifur Rahman, Director of Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech, USA, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Vice President for New Initiatives and Outreach, IEEE Power & Energy Society addressing the press conference said, "In today's complicated and interdependent world, we cannot focus on economies of scale only. We need to look at the security and reliability of the supply as well. Countries will not be able to keep building large power plants to solve power problems. While we understand that there is a basic minimum level of electricity service a country must provide to its citizens, and build central station power plants and transmission networks to support that need, just building more and more power plants will not be sustainable in the long run for environmental and resource limitation concerns."
He also mentioned that the issues of energy efficiency, diversity and security of supply, fuel diversity, consumer education, market-sensitive tariffs, and adequate government support for new sources of electricity must be looked at for a comprehensive long term solution to a nation's electricity needs.
Energy is one of the major inputs for the economic development of any country. In the case of the developing countries, the energy sector assumes a critical importance in view of the ever-increasing energy needs requiring huge investments to meet them.
Wanda K. Reder, IEEE Power and Energy Society, President, said, "Some of the strategies that can be used to meet future challenges to India's energy security are diversification of energy supply sources, increased capacity of fuel switching, demand restraint, development of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and sustainable development."
IEEE in its role as a technology association whose mission is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity has been keen on encouraging debate amongst its distinguished members, policy makers and industry to address some of India's pressing power needs.
Dr. Subrata Mukhopadhyay, a member of the Governing Board of the IEEE Power and Energy Society, mentioned, "About a third of India's population does not have access to grid power and expanding grid power to them is not the answer. India should adopt modern and clean technologies such as Solar, Hydro and Wind power to electrify the needs of the rest of the country," he added.
Electrifying the whole country with grid power will be highly capital intensive for India unless the country is able to maintain a huge technical manpower to maintain that network; and the networks should be strong to weather natural disasters. The main concern with distribution networks is the cost of maintaining the distribution network.
Dr. Rahman cited a few examples of how developing economies such as Thailand and Malaysia are addressing the power problems given the scenario where end users are not able to pay for electricity.
While there is a need to bring the transmission and distribution of power to every village, it is not a feasible solution. Thailand has provided electricity grid access to 99.7% of its land area and yet 800,000 of its citizens are not accessible by the power grid. India, being a larger country with a larger population, can provide electricity for lighting or heating or critical needs with renewal energy such as:
a. Solar
b. Small scale hydro
c. Wind
The talk touched upon the various opportunities from efficient lighting systems and energy conservation to manufacturing, among others. Energy efficient appliances and devices should be encouraged to meet the power needs of consumers without requiring large amounts of energy, which has been the case historically. Wanda Reder urged that domestic appliances including refrigeration, air conditioning and lighting systems used in Indian homes need to adopt energy-saving measures thereby cutting on the national power losses.
IEEE in its position as the world's largest technical professional society is in India with a wealth of knowledge its members have from both the developed world and emerging economies China, Thailand, Korea and Malaysia. An unprecedented increase in the demand of power in India is projected to continue for years to come, and will create a huge business opportunity for new investments in power generation, transmission and distribution.
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Source: IEEE
