At the recently held RE100 India Conclave, we convened renewable energy champions, including RE100 member companies and RE developers. The two-day Conclave brought together demand and supply side perspectives. Among the discussion topics were, renewable electricity (RE) procurement, interstate and intrastate RE procurement, hybrid RE and storage, and alternative RE instruments.
The Conclave was held at Mahindra Towers in Mumbai and organised in collaboration with Mercom India (formerly Mercom Communications India). The seventh edition of the RE100 Members Forum was also hosted, which is a platform for RE100 members to exchange experiences and learnings with peers and find solutions to common RE related challenges faced by the industry. While the first day was open to RE buyers and developers, the second day was exclusive to our members.
The event kicked off with a high-level panel setting the RE100 ambition for India. The insights from the first day included:
- Businesses are leveraging sustainability as a competitive advantage over their peers. The importance of leadership, ambition, and accountability was emphasised.
- Sustainable technology is available but is still high in costs. Based on the location of their production units, RE100 member companies are seeing policy barriers like variable tariffs imposed by state governments and delayed project approvals, among other issues. Addressing these barriers will thus remain critical for increased RE uptake.
- Open Access RE procurement (or industry’s ability to procure electricity from a third party apart from distribution entities) was seen as a fast and scalable path to help RE buyers meet their energy needs.
- Solar power is finding good utilisation, but other energy sources such as wind also offer rich possibilities. Solar-wind hybrid has proven to be techno-economically feasible in many cases. Such innovative models can additionally benefit maximising RE adoption by buyers.
- Various RE procurement instruments were explored. Among them was Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) were explored. A VPPA is a contract which allows buyers to earn green attributes/ certificates issued by an RE producer but there is no physical use of the produce. The RE producer can sell electricity in a power exchange at a market price. Green tariffs, which are charges paid over existing tariff to procure renewable power from DISCOMS, were also discussed for their importance as a last-mile solution to achieve 100% RE.
The RE100 Members Forum was convened on the Conclave’s second day. Some highlights were:
- A masterclass on carbon markets, voluntary and compliance mechanisms by EKI Energy Services Ltd (EnKing International). The session also explored important international and national developments.
- A session on responsible energy procurement where RE100 members were keen to know about the Responsible Energy Initiative to promote a people - planet centric business model.
