Accelerating Clean Energy 2017

WRI India is hosting Accelerating Clean Energy 2017 (ACE17), a conference that will bring together policymakers, sector regulators, corporates, energy sector experts, and research organisations in an effort to explore ways to enhance the growth of clean energy procurement and deployment by businesses in India, and to overcome barriers that limit this. The event will be held on 28 November 2017 at The Claridges, New Delhi.

Background

India has undertaken ambitious clean energy targets and developed multiple renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives. While there has been impressive growth in achieving some of these targets, significant barriers continue to inhibit a higher level of adoption and deployment of clean energy. The workshop seeks to discuss some of these barriers and find solutions for the same. For instance, with the GPMDG initiative, we have been working closely with commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers to help them procure and install renewable energy, on-site and off-site, including by using the open access route envisaged in the Electricity Act, 2003.

Recently, State Electricity Regulatory Commissions have been petitioned to disallow open access or increase charges related to use of the grid to transport renewable energy. The conference will look at issues of this kind to better understand what C&I consumers have been doing currently, where have they been successful in procuring renewables, how have distribution utilities and regulators responded, and what challenges remain. This will be followed by a session that looks at options and approaches to overcome these challenges in a fair manner. We have invited different stakeholders in order to receive perspectives that will address concerns on all sides, and offer future looking solutions.

Speakers

Conference speakers include, Dr. Pramod Deo (Former Chairperson, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission); Dr. Sushanta Chatterjee (Joint Chief, Regulatory Affairs, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission); Moutushi Sengupta (India Director, MacArthur Foundation); Deepak Gupta (Sr. Program Manager, Power, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation); Ashwin Gambhir (Fellow, Prayas Energy Group); Joe Phelan (Director, WBCSD India); N Dinesh Babu (Team Leader, World Bank-SBI Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Program, EY]; KN Rao (Director, Energy & Environment, ‎ACC Limited); and Neeraj Menon (Partner, Energy and Infrastructure, Trilegal).

Special Launch

All About Renewables, a portal developed by the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE) in association with the Indian Renewable Energy Federation (IREF) will be launched at the conference. This comprehensive, first-of-its-kind portal endeavours to offer a new approach to information and knowledge dissemination, providing up-to-date information on renewable energy to interested parties in India and abroad, with a state-of-the-art, user-friendly interface. Along with this, a special report on the status of renewable energy in India 2016-17 will be released.

ACE17 is a Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) initiative, in partnership with CII Sohrabji Green Business Centre, supported by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and MacArthur Foundation.