Saturday, May 31, 2014

Views on 'Future of Power Distribution Franchisee Model in India' by Dr. Murhari Kele, CE (Mumbai), MSEDCL

Dr. Murhari S. Kele,
Chief Engineer,
MSEDCL, Mumbai.
Power Distribution Franchisee (PDF) model in India saw mixed results across various operating areas so far. While the model saw good momentum after Bhiwandi success story with various states opting for the same, but there is no second success story to further boost the growth of the model.  

pManifold team recently spoke with Dr. Murhari Kele, an industry expert in Power Distribution Franchisee to understand his viewpoints on Future scenario of model. (The views here are personal views, and not to be associated with any company in any forms)

1. Power Distribution Franchisee (PDF), one of the reforms in power distribution utilities has seen ups and downs since its inception in 2007? What is your opinion on privatization of Indian Power Distribution Utilities, and opting Franchisee model as a possible precursor for same (compared with other private models like Delhi PPP model, PPP concessionaire, etc.)?

After inception of The Electricity Act-2003, SEB’s were unbundled in various activities. Power distribution reforms through National Tariff policy & National Electricity policy speaks about the private sector participation in public utilities through various models, like PPP model, franchisee model or full privatisation. These types of operating models are used for turnaround of loss making utilities. Each model is having its own characteristics with risks & challenges. But based on performance of various models for last five years, it shows that private ownership was superior both for PPP & to public ownership. With private ownership there were two models namely Privatisation & second Franchisee. In terms of reduction of system losses the performance of both PPP model in Delhi  & Franchisee model in Bhiwandi, the results were dramatic & comparable. These were obtained not only by better management practices, better surveillance etc but also by providing superior services to customers. 

Thursday, May 29, 2014

New Initiatives / steps taken by UGVCL to improve operational efficiency

The Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Limited (UGVCL), a second largest state discom in Gujarat serving almost 2.9 million customers, has its network spread across an area of 49,950 Sq. Km. It was the rated the second best state power distribution utility, by the Ministry of Power (MoP), with due recognition to its excellent performance in the financial front, and ensuing operational improvement and consumer-friendly practices.

The discom is forefront in taking effective steps to improve operational efficiency and provide better services to customers. Some of the steps taken have been the introduction of system strengthening schemes, expansion of metering coverage, installation of special design transformers that help in peak load management, an insurance policy to compensate for crops destroyed by fire due to electrical line faults and launch of a photo billing system. Through these, the utility has been trying to control its rising aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses but also help in peak load management through the installation of advanced metering infrastructure.

A brief outline on different types of steps taken by the discom are mentioned below:

Operational performance

The utility’s AT&C losses have been increasing since 2010-11, when these stood at 6.63%. The losses touched 10.12% in 2011-12 and 14.07% in 2012-13; with increase in losses being attributed to low metering coverage of agricultural consumers, which only accounts for 36.75% in 2012-13, as compared to 28% in 2008-09, out of the total 100% metering provided. To address this issue, the utility

  • Releasing all new agricultural connections at metered tariffs. In 2013-14, it released 22,278 new agricultural connections and additional load of 201 MW for existing agricultural connections, by installing 3000 km of HIgh Tension (HT) lines, and 55 agricultural feeders, following bifurcation of existing agricultural feeders
  • Launched a state sponsored scheme viz., Jyotigram Yojana, introduced in 2006, which ensures 24×7 three phase quality power, the utility supplies electricity to scattered farm-houses, through feeders with specially designed Jyotigram transformers
  • Installs AB conductor cables in theft prone areas, undertaking mass anti-theft drives and replacement of electromechanical meters with static meters to bring losses below 20% for feeders with higher losses   
  • Ensures timely and accurate billing in order to reduce losses by initiating photo billing system for 0.2 million consumers, sending billing information to consumers by SMS, and installation of radio frequency (RF)-based single phase meters to avoid human intervention in meter reading
  • Ensures energy conservation, cost efficiency and reduction in distribution transformer losses, the utility has introduced special design transformers – pilot advanced transformers (PATs) which provides single-phase power supply to farmers after the eighth hour; and this concept won the utility the 'India Utility Knowledge and Networking Forum (IUKAN) 2014 – Best Practice Award' under the “Innovations and Others” category.
Smart Grid Pilot

UGVCL is one of the utility short listed for smart grid initiative under MoP. The project is being undertaken in two districts – Naroda and Deesa. The Rs. 487.8 million pilot project will cover about 375 substations across these districts. The scope of the project covers AT&C loss reduction, peak load management, developing advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), optimisation of unscheduled interchange charge, reduction in meter reading cost, outage management, load forecasting, demand side management and demand response, introduction of asset management systems and power quality management.

Five consortiums were shortlisted for proof of concept (PoC) in March 2014 for demonstrating their AMI connectivity solutions with 300 meters each. On basis of evaluation of PoC and bid price, the contract for the project will be awarded in September 2014. Few challenges faced by UGVCL at tendering stage includes interoperability issues, limited expertise of Indian companies, and absence of mechanisms to test imported technologies in India.

Future Plans

In a nutshell, the utility’s future plans are aimed at strengthening and upgrading its grid infrastructure through various initiatives like adding distribution lines at 11kV and LT levels, including the smart grid pilot. Loss reduction measures and ensuring consumer satisfaction through quality power supply are its top priorities, going forward. 

Please note: Above is the summary of the article on Power Distribution Franchisee model published in PowerLine magazine, April 2014.

Posted by: Kunjan Bagdia @ pManifold

Monday, May 5, 2014

Suez bagged 3 contracts in India, Water supply project for twin cities in Orissa, An Interview with Mr.Siddarth Agarwal - Founder & CEO Mobicule Technologies and More...


This is the newsletter for the month of May, 2014 sent to mailing list of pManifold sharing Water Distribution Industry opportunities and updates.

We continue to bring you key developments in the Water Distribution Industry.

New Water Project Highlights in April - 2014
  • Suez Environment receives three contracts in india worth Rs. 505 crore more...
  • Orissa Government has taken up urban water supply project for Twin city Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack in PPP Mode more...
Top News Highlights of April - 2014
  • Irrigation Department had flouted norms for KIKVI irrigation Project to improve Water supply in Nashik worth Rs. 273 Crore more…
  • Tamil Nadu Chief Minister claims credit for water desalination project in Chennai more...
  • Privatization of water makes water as an owned commodity rather than a Universal Human Right more…
  • Karnataka Government has 800 Cr to handle drinking water crisis, said Rural Development Minister more…
  • Brickworks gives stable outlook for Nangloi Water Services Project more...
Blogs
  • "Mobility is next big thing in Indian Utilities" - Mr. Siddharth Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Mobicule 
    pManifold recently had discussion with Mr. Agarwal about his vision on mobility and Indian Utilities. Read 
    more..
  • Do Pro-Poor Policies Increase Water Coverage? more...
  • A Lecture on PPP in US Water Sector & Helping Municipalities with complexity more...
Upcoming Water Events
  • Aquatech India - 2014,6 to 8 May, New Delhi more...
  • 2nd International Conference on Waste Water Technology for Greening India 2014, 2nd June, Pune more..
  • WaterTech India - 2014, 10 to 12 September, New Delhi more...

pManifold's Utility Practice details can be viewed here. Please contact me at 91 9970 46 2580 or at mohammad.sufiyan@pmanifold.com, if you would like to know more about us.
pManifold's services in Utility ranges from Go-to-Market Research & Advisory, Technical Feasibility, Financial Bid Advisory, Takeover Advisory, Analytics, Customer Intelligence & Satisfaction Monitoring, process improvement consulting, organizing stakeholder conferences and others.

JSEB Franchisee bid date extension, DF model way forward, PQ and loss reduction interconnection - Power Distribution Newsletter, May 2014

This is the newsletter for the month of May, 2014 sent to mailing list of pManifold sharing Power Distribution Industry opportunities and updates.

We continue to bring you key developments in the Power Distribution Industry.
Opportunities
·    Bid submission date for JSEB floated tenders for appointment of Collection based Rural Distribution Franchisee has been again extended until 19th May, 2014. (See RFPDFA)
Key Updates from existing operators
·    SNDL's meter replacement drive is nearing completion and has resulted in reduction of distribution losses. In addition, the company has invested over Rs. 100 Cr. for augmenting the infrastructure. (Read here)
·    Recognizing operational excellence of ground staffs like engineers, lineman, substation, etc., Jaipur discoms to incorporate their views and suggestions in speeding up the consumer grievance Redressal mechanism and other services. (Read here)

Monday, April 28, 2014

Mobility solutions from Mobicule for Utilities in India

Mr. Siddharth Agarwal, Founder
& CEO, Mobicule
The global market has experienced a paradigm shift with the introduction of SMAC technologies. The letter ‘M’ which stands for 'Mobility’ has changed the opinion of undertaking business and has been dominating in the minds of technocrats, businessmen, and the investors. It does not surprise us to perceive industries shifting to mobile devices where India accounts more than 900 million subscriber base. Catching with the trend various innovative mobile apps has been developed leading to interesting business case. It is believed that mobile app download will grow exponentially and if this is the scenario, one of the biggest beneficiary of these technologies can be Indian utilities aiming to improve their efficiency and streamlining their operation through more focused customer engagement.

pManifold team recently spoke to Mr. Siddharth Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Mobicule to understand how the mobility solution is changing the landscape of Indian utility markets. The below shared are author's personal views and not to be associated with any of their company's association.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

What is PQ? Whose responsibility is it?

India and most developing countries continue to struggle for 24x7 power supply, good Power Quality (PQ) environment, and Energy Efficient (EE) economy. See APQI earlier blog that tries to quantify economic impact from poor PQ environment - Are developing economies at risk due to power quality issues and challenges?

Another follow-up question will be WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MAINTAINING GOOD POWER QUALITY? Answer to this is usually divided and depends upon whom we pose this question. Network Operator will blame his end-customers, Device Manufacturer will blame both the Network Operator and the end-customer, and end-customer usually has not much awareness, and believe that its supply problem from Network Operator.

In addition to above 3 key stakeholders, there are others like - Designers, Commissioning Engineers and Maintenance Engineers that also plays role in sustaining good PQ environment.Commissioning Engineer play the role in ensuring the quality of installation based on certain design standards. Good installation is one of the necessities to maintain power quality during operations and to minimize voltage drop, sparking, overheating, etc. Maintenance engineers are subsequently responsible for preventing any glitches in operations which can result in power quality issue. For ex. loose connections lead to sparking;poor quality of wires results in voltage drops at customers premise, etc.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Evolving Distribution Franchisee Model across states

The Ministry of Power’s financial restructuring plan has made the introduction of private participation in distribution as one of the mandatory conditions for availing the benefits of scheme (as a result of high AT&C losses, low IT involvement and huge financial losses). Whilst State Governments’ (except Delhi and Odisha) have not undertaken privatisation of Discoms, Distribution Franchisee (DF) model has emerged as one of the attractive options to involve private players for enhancing distribution operations. The success of Torrent Power as a DF player in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra has fuelled the other states to adopt this model. Other operational areas include Agra (UP), Nagpur (Maharashtra), Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Jalgaon (Maharashtra) and Sagar (MP).

Saturday, April 12, 2014

JICA approves loan of Rs.960 Cr. for Agra, SPML bagged Rs. 721 Cr. project in Gujarat and Bihar, more...


This is a newsletter for the month of April, 2014 sent to mailing list of pManifold sharing Water Distribution industry opportunities and updates.

We continue to share Water Distribution Utility updates for broader community development. Some of them are mentioned below and hope you find it useful. 

New Water Project Highlights in March - 2014
  • JICA approves loan of Rs.960 Cr. for Agra Water Project more...
  • SPML Infra has bagged projects worth Rs. 721 Cr. in Gujarat and Bihar more...
  • HCC, GVPR Engineers JV bags Rs. 904 Cr. project in Karnataka more...
  • 24x7 Metered Water Supply move begins at Ahmedabad more...
  • Steel Authority of India & CII Triveni Water Institute signs MOU on Ensuring Water Efficiency more...
Articles of March - 2014
  • Doom predicted for India in 2050 more..
  • CSR spend on water is a big challenge more...
  • Research and Markets: The Wastewater Treatment Plants Market in India is Expected to Grow more...
Upcoming Water Events
  • 2nd International Conference on Waste Water Technology for Greening India 2014 (ICWWTGI-2014) - 2nd June, Pune - Maharashtra more..
Blogs
  • Peeking into the challenges in managing waste water in the tier-2/3 cities in India more..
  • SCADA system to better monitor India city's water distribution network more..
Case Studies
  • If you are prospecting to enter in Water Utilities as Operator or Service Provider or Vendor - learn some best practices through case studies from pManifold (Water Utility Case Studies).
IUKAN 2014 - POST EVENT UPDATES
The 2nd Annual IUKAN Conference was conducted at New Delhi on 13th Feb, 2014 at Le Meridien. The conference was attended by 250+ Thought Leaders and Delegates.
The conference proceedings, pictures and participating companies details can be seen at http://www.iukan.in/conference-2014/proceedings-post-event/
Awards recipients in their respective categories that broadly saw participation of 65+ nominations from 35+ companies across 8 categories and 2 tracks.

pManifold's Utility Practice can be viewed here, please contact me at +91 99704-62580 or at mohammad.sufiyan@pmanifold.com, if you would like to know more about us.  
pManifold's services in Utility ranges from Go-to-Market Research & Advisory, Technical Feasibility, Financial Bid Advisory, Takeover Advisory, Analytics, Customer Intelligence & Satisfaction Monitoring, process improvement consulting, organizing stakeholder conferences and others.

Monday, April 7, 2014

ARE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES AT RISK DUE TO POWER QUALITY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES?

Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI) aims to create and build awareness on issues related to Power Quality (PQ). APQI was 'Power Quality' partner to IUKAN 2014 earlier this year. The group continues spreading the essential message of PQ to various stakeholders, helping businesses and industries with improved understanding and insights.

Recently, they published a very interesting blog on 'ARE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES AT RISK DUE TO POWER QUALITY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES?'.

This blog underlines the importance of PQ in today's fast growing power electronics and IT driven businesses. Developing economies like India continue to struggle for 24x7 power supply and are lagging in terms of their PQ expectations though striving hard for energy efficient economy. The blog focuses on the associated economic impact due to PQ issues and challenges borne by developing countries. Can we afford to ignore that risk by remaining ignorant!

For detailed blog, please see following link: http://www.apqi.org/blog/are-developing-economies-at-risk-due-to-power-quality-issues-and-challenges.html

Posted by: Kunjan Bagdia @ pManifold

Saturday, April 5, 2014

JSEB Franchisee bid submission date extended, Mr. Ajoy Mehta's Vision Session at IUKAN 2014 - Power Distribution Newsletter, April 2014

This is a newsletter for the month of April, 2014 sent to mailing list of pManifold sharing Power Distribution industry opportunities and updates.

We continue to share Power Distribution Utility updates for broader community development. Some of them are mentioned below and hope you find it useful. 


Existing Opportunities
  • Last date of bid submission for Jharkhand State Electricity Board's (JSEB) floated tenders for appointment of Collection based Distribution Franchisee model in its 10 rural sub-division has been extended by 12th April, 2014. (Readhere
Roll Outs from Utilities 
  • In order to ensure reliable power supply and to reduce the breakdown and voltage fluctuation, Spanco Nagpur Discom Limited (SNDL) to invest Rs. 30 Cr. to augment its power network. (Read here)
  • An integrated project of Automated Demand Response (ADR) and AMI are conceptualized together by TPDDL to improve the power reliability and to manage peak power demand more optimally. (Read here

Friday, March 21, 2014

IT Services & Capacity Building from Cronos group for Utilities in India

Dr. Ralf Bauermann, Chairman,
Cronos Group
pManifold team recently had an interview with Dr. Ralf Bauermann, Chairman, Cronos Group of Companies to understand about their IT and Capacity Building solutions for Utilities in India. (The below shared are author's personal views and not to be associated with any of their company's association)
  1. Please elaborate Cronos IT solution for Utilities? (phase wise modules, current deployment stage (if any PPP / Franchisee), key features, hardware requirements, team size for setup and regular running, business engagement model (Capex vs. Opex based), next planned add-ons, etc.)
    • As a utility IT solution provider, Cronos believes in engaging the customer for successful implementation of the project and with this implementation strategy Cronos has developed template solutions for utility specific business processes like Billing (Go), CRM (Go), AMI (Go) and migration tools for reducing the implementation time by 70%. Implementation of the SAP End to End Solution in phased manner as per the Utility needs which is a key for successful implementation and continual engagement. 
    • Consulting services are adapting new approaches in reducing in time and cost of implementation to meet the urgent business requirements of utilities to increase their revenue, improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.Our express implementations with standard customized templates will help the consulting services team to bring utilities the best (cost and time) in mission-critical software for far less than they might have anticipated.
    • A standard set of customized templates for critical business processes for specific utility types (electric, gas, water, waste management):
      • Pre-configured software solution
      • Use pre-defined tools and approaches for integration with other client solutions
      • Out-of-the-box training materials specific to our pre-configured solutions
      • Use Change management approaches

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Peeking into the challenges in managing waste water in the tier-2/3 cities in India

In the recently organized 2nd Annual India Utility Knowledge and Networking Conference, experts discussed the Business and Technology Innovations that are the need of the hour for scaling up the Waste Water Management in the tier-2/3 cities in India.

While access to safe drinking water is one challenge that remains to be solved, a corollary and equally significant and impacting health hazard is rising from accumulating municipal & industrial waste water and its untreated disposal. The major issues impacting waste water management are -

  • Cost effective Waste Water Treatment Technology; 
  • By-products use and market development; 
  • Economics and price adoption for Industrial use of treated waste water vs. fresh water; 
  • Public Private Partnerships structuring with clear roles and responsibilities, etc. 

In most ULBs, the reforms are yet to come in. There is still no answer for what to do with recycled water post primary treatment. Often such water is released in nearby water bodies as dissolved impurities in this water can be treated only through RO technology, which is expensive. 

Consider a typical Indian tier 2/3 city with population of 100,000 and about 120-135l water/person/day.  On an average, 80% of the supplied water returns as sewage. At this rate, the city would generate 10mld of sewage per day. 

Experts suggested that installing a 10mld capacity plant with the best in country technology would cost around Rs. 100-130 million i.e. Rs.1300/person investment required. Assuming a 10yrs life of one such plant, the costs come to Rs.130/person/year. This cost plus cost to collect water, suction pump etc put together, recycled water is available at Rs.40/person/month which is about Rs.1.35/person/day. 

If the Government of India considers a country wide investment in waste water treatment, the amount to be raised by government it amounts to (Rs.1.35 x total population of India) per day, which is a huge.


Commercialization of waste water can turn out to be a very useful step in encouraging more industries involved towards treating the waste water. Out 8% of total water supplied to industry, 70% goes to power plants. For Municipal corporations, OpEx still remains an issue since the CapEx is taken care by schemes like JnNURM. Of the total OpEx, 70-80% is the power cost. Without power, it is simply garbage in- garbage out. If power cost is taken care by methods like Group Captive Power Plants (GCPP), the Sewage Treatment Plants could become financially sustainable.

In one such initiative to commercialize and reuse the waste water, Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (Mahagenco) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), are jointly installing a 130mld Waste Water Treatment Plant in Nagpur. The NMC will allocate land and subsidy under the JnNURM program and Mahagenco will pay balance amount for project and bear opex. The recycled water would be supplied to Koradi Thermal Plant.

According to Central Pollution Control Board, in tier 2 and 3, only about 20% of total waste water is being treated. Less than 20% WWTPs are being utilized at their 100% capacity i.e.only 5-10% capacity is utilized to treat water. 

This calls for more time being spent on understanding the engineering and technology so as to make the waste water treatment business in India more viable.

====================================================================================
This panel had participation from Jal Board, State Government,. Technology Providers and Project Developers who shared their experiences, and brainstormed to build consensus on shaping an effective and integrated PPP models in Municipal Waste Water Management.

Also read: 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Mahagenco-to-give-Rs-15cr-to-NMC-for-waste-water-project/articleshow/3446853.cms

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/660MW-Koradi-unit-countrys-biggest-to-run-on-sewage-water/articleshow/24728967.cms

Mr. Ajoy Mehta shared his vision on 'Sustainability of Indian Power Distribution Utilities and further roadmap' at IUKAN 2014

Mr. Ajoy Mehta, MD,
MSEDCL
Mr. Ajoy Mehta, MD, MSEDCL, in a recently concluded IUKAN 2014 conference shared his vision on 'Sustainability of Indian Power Distribution Utilities and further road-map'. A brief excerpt from his Vision session is shared below. (The views here are personal views, and not to be associated with any company in any forms)

There is need to create right and holistic competition in the power distribution sector, and the road-map cannot be same as followed in Telecom, as electricity is still not ‘wireless’, and differential pricing based on Value-added-Services is not allowed. In Power Distribution sector, competition should be created on customer services delivery side, and private participation in this area should be strongly encouraged. Creating competition between Discoms and private companies on Generation and Network side via mechanisms like Open Access, should be further vetted for Discom viability.

Friday, March 7, 2014

White Paper on Franchisee Operation & Open Access

While open access as a phenomenon comes as a relief to many in the power market and
particularly Big Industrial Consumers who have been making a fortune, because of this
mechanism which has been facilitating them in getting access to the abysmally low prices
prevailing in the open market over the last 2-3 years. This has also helped them gain access
to much cheaper alternate source of power which otherwise used to come from Diesel
Generators at an average rate of Rs. 16-20/Unit.

Barring a few states, most states across the country have been finding out ways and means 
to curb outgo of these Big & Paying consumers to avoid revenue loss on one end and to 
avoid embarrassment of higher T&D loss on the other, which comes parallel to outgo of big 
consumers who normally account for much lesser T&D loss and virtually no commercial 
loss.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Discover Opportunities in Power & Water Distribution - Join IUKAN 2014, 13th Feb, New Delhi

IUKAN 2014 is focused on improving Utility Services in Urban Areas and covers power, water, waste etc. It is a very interesting platform that is build to get various stakeholders such as Policy Makers, Regulators, Operators, Service Providers, Consumers, Technology Players together and facilitate 'Rapid Scale Up’, 'Service Effectiveness’ and 'Financial Flows' to this important sector. 

IUKAN 2014, the 3rd such Event is to be held at Hotel Le Meridian, New Delhi on 13th February. It will have two parallel tracks, one on Power Distribution and other on Water Distribution including Waste Water, with focus upon improving their performance through faster reforms and PPP uptake. Its theme is 'Complimenting Reforms Bottom-up through Improved Operationalization and Engaged Local Ecosystem’. 


The Conference will see 12 panels, 50+ Speakers, 20+ Partners, 70+ Best Practice Award Nominees and total 300+ delegate participation. The Conference will provide an excellent networking platform for fellow industry professionals.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

IUKAN 2014 - Update on Conference and Best Practice Awards

The 2nd Annual Conference of India Utility Knowledge and Networking Forum gets underway at Le Meridien, Delhi on February 13, 2014 with a focused agenda on “operational challenges and best practices” to help utility operators to learn and make improvements in their areas including strategy, policy, contract, services and operations. The theme this year is “Complementing Reforms Bottom-up: Through Improved Operationalization and Engaged Local Ecosystem”.

Essentially for all the PPP models in the power, water and waste sectors, the key issue is building operational viability while engaging with local stakeholders. Key topics covered at both tracks will thus include discussions on how to thrive in local ecosystem (Political, Local Administration, Law-Enforcement & Media), key parameters of operational performance across multiple variants of private participation, changes to existing model and contracting for viability and inclusiveness, innovations in service provider ecosystem, treating customer services as a marketing function and lastly institutionalising financing of loss reduction.

This year the conference has day-long, parallel tracks on Power and Water Distribution. The schedule is power packed with over 300+ business leaders and functional heads as delegates from the utility industry. Bigger than the IUKAN 2013 conference, it will be a gathering of thought leaders, private operators, public utilities, vendors, regulators, urban local bodies and professionals working in a fast emerging segment of PPPs in utility sector.

The first track of the conference focuses on Power Distribution and features around 20 industry leading speakers across 5 panels including Mohd. Suleman - Energy Secretary of MP Govt., Prabhakar Kukde – Ex-Technical Director MSEB, R. C. Agrawala – MD of NPCL, Sunil Wadhwa – CEO of IL&FS Energy, Praveer Sinha – CEO of NDPL, Reji Pillai – President of India Smart Grid Forum, Mr. S Jayaraman – CTO of Essel Utilities, Jagdish Chelaramani - BU Head of GTL, Suvajit Das - AVP Project Advisory & Structured Finance of SBI CAPS, Vinod Kala - MD of EVI, and Chris Gaines – CTO of Exceleron.

The second track of the conference takes a focused look on the Water Distribution and Waste Water management business models and their operational challenges and solutions. This track features another 20 industry leading speakers across 5 panels including Alok Shiromany - Head Technical Committee of JnNURM, Vandana Bhatnagar - Economist WSP-SA of World Bank, Shrikar Padeshi – Municipal Commissioner of Pimpri Chinchwad, Anil Sole – Mayor of Nagpur and President of All India Mayor Council, Malini Shankar - Principal Secretary of Govt. of Maharashtra, M.S. Unnikrishnan - MD, Thermax, Darpan Jain – MD of Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation Limited and Patrick Rousseau – CMD of Veolia Water India.

A Vision Session will be held towards the end of the panels jointly with Dr. Isher Ahluwalia – Chairperson of ICRIER and also Chairperson of High Powered Committee on Urban Infrastructure, and Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala – Professor of IITM and Member of Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Committee talking about their work and innovations towards inclusive growth in improvement of service delivery in these sectors.

Along with the conference this year, the IUKAN forum introduces the “Utility Best Practice Awards” aimed to recognize practical and innovative ways employed by utility operators, their business partners and stakeholders to drive improvements in systems and service delivery to end consumers. The Awards intend to bring a paradigm shift in the way a utility looks at its Grounds Team, which is the actual asset and wealth manager for the utility.

Best practice nominations have been received from across utility service providers, public and private utilities. Those nominating include leading public utilities like MSEDCL, BESCOM, DGVCL, Mysore City Corporation, Vadodara Municipal Corporation, PGVCL, UGVCL and private utilities like BSES Rajdhani, BSES Yamuna,  CESC Limited, NPCL, JUSCO, Enzen, GTL Limited, MVV Water Utility Private Ltd., Tata Power Company Ltd, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, WESCO, Orange City Water. Service providers ecosystem also actively responded to the awards with nominations coming from TCS, A2Z, Secure Meters, Raychem RPG, Mechatronics, ADCC Infocad, AIVA Engineering, Anjani Logistics, Creative Entrepreneurs, E-Cube Energy Trading, E-Link, Mobilcule, OSSR, OZO Nano Sciences, Pranat Engineers, SMS Infra Ltd. and many others.

The nominations are categorized as per business practices in areas of Customer Services and Complaint Management, Metering Effectiveness and Smart Infrastructure, Billing and Collection, Operations, Maintenance and Asset Management, Loss Reduction, Theft Control and Vigilance, People Management and Development, Bid Management and Operations Takeover, Audits, Compliances, MIS Reporting, Innovations and Others. Nominations will be judged by eminent 4 Juries drawn from IUKAN Advisory Board and the results will be declared during the conference. Along with acknowledgment to industry’s best practices through the Awards program, select entries would be published in a Best Practice Journal, to be released at the conference on 13th Feb, 2014.

Mr. Rahul Bagdia, Director of pManifold and secretary of the IUKAN Forum says, “The private participation in the sectors of waste, water and power is under constant pressure to establish an inclusive business model while reducing losses and improving services. This requires stakeholders to engage transparently to discuss challenges, co-create solutions and learn from the best practices implemented. ‘I, you can’ or ‘IUKAN’ is a fundamental positive drive that we want to instill in these emerging business models. The prospective and early players thus can get engaged with the established vendor ecosystem and mature utility players to achieve operational success while implementing reforms faster for improvement of service delivery to end consumers.”

IUKAN forum is the initiative of pManifold. IUKAN 2014 this year is co-organized by Emergent Ventures India and is supported by GTL, NPCL and Enzen as Associate Partners. Creative Entrepreneurs, ADCC Infocad, Exceleron and eLink Software Technologies are associated as Partner to Utilities while Accenture is the Best Practice Showcase Partner. Other partners to the event include NPTI, Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW), India Water Foundation (IWF), India Electron Exchange (IEE), Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), Asia Power Quality Initiative (APQI), India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF), India Power Sector, Energetica, EA Waters and Attrait Solutions.


Please visit www.iukan.in for more information, registration, sponsorship and association 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Jain Irrigation & Pratibha Industries Bagged Rs.385 & Rs.590 crore projects respectively, Best Practice Awards at IUKAN 2014 and more...

This is a newsletter sent to mailing list of pManifold, sharing Water Distribution Industry opportunities and updates.

Some of the recent updates in the Water Distribution space are shared below. We hope you'll find the content informative and useful.

New Water Project Highlights in Dec-2013
  • Rs.139 crore sanctioned for water supply projects in Himachal Pradesh more...
  • Jain Irrigation bagged Rs.385 crore project from Karnataka Government more...
  • Pratibha Industries bagged Rs.590 crore projects more...
  • World Bank to provide $960 million drinking water projects to India more...
  • ADB to provide Kolkata Municipal Corporation $400 mn to improve water & sewerage services more... 
Top News Highlights of Dec-2013
  • Kolhapur Municipal Corporation to start water audit to plug losses more...
  • Mumbai citizens to pay water bills at kiosks more...
  • Surat to close 100% water supply project soon more...
  • HUDA completes water supply line for New Gurgaon more...
Articles of Dec-2013
  • Drinking water woes in 25% Urban Homes more...
  • 2013 Report on the International Water & Wastewater Treatment Equipment Market–Global Trends & Forecasts To 2018 more...
  • Companies smell mega bucks in water market more...
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Case Studies
  • If you are prospecting to enter in Water Utilities as Operator or Service Provider or Vendor - learn some best practices through case studies from pManifold (Water Utility Case Studies).
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