National Conference
Sustainable Energy in India - Way
Forward for Energy Security
Learning & Experiences from DREC Project in
West Bengal
Keya Ghosh
Director
CUTS-Calcutta Resource Centre
23 March, 2013
2
Rationale for undertaking the Project
• To maintain the growth trajectory, India must meet the increasing demand
for energy.
• For responsible and sustainable growth---- focus on demand side
management (DSM) and renewable energy (RE), is a must.
• Currently, there is underutilization of both RE and DSM potential.
• Without active and robust participation of Consumers , no DSM or RE
initiative can be successful.
• Mitigating energy shortages, encouraging energy efficiency at demand end,
improving utility revenues or creating markets for RE technology ---all
require participation of consumers as an important STAKEHOLDR.
•
Hence this project………
3
Project Objectives
• Overall Objective –
To increase long-term capacity/awareness of consumer groups to demand
for DSM and RE initiatives, and also to understand, document and
communicate their specific needs to relevant policy makers.
• Specific Objectives
 To gauge the level of awareness among various stakeholders on RE and
DSM
 To understand consumers’ willingness to pay for RE
 To understand the various roadblocks to effective implementation of
initiatives pertaining to RE and DSM
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Some Details…..
Territories in West Bengal
•
•
•
•
Namkhana
Gosaba
Patharpratima
Mathurapur
• Tamluk
• Contai
• Duttaphulia
• Chapra
• CoochBehar
• Haldibari
Criteria for Choosing Districts
 Sunderbans
Parganas)
initiatives
undertaken
(South
24
---- where RE
have
been
 East Midnapore & Nadia Grid Connected and Hence
higher relevance of DSM
 Cooch Behar - isolated
islands and hence higher
relevance for RE initiative
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Project Activities
As per Project Proposal
Other Demand Driven
Activities
• Inception Workshop
• Baseline Survey
•
Focused Group Discussions with select
stakeholders
• RG Meeting
•
Developing a Training Manual for
CSOs and Consumers in Bangla
• State Level Training Workshop
•
CIMs were made stakeholder specific
(household, CSOs, commercial, and
agriculture)
•
4 Case Studies
•
Study on Diesel Operators
•
Dissemination and Dialogue Meeting
for CSOs with NABARD and WBREDA
• Consumer Interface Meeting
CIM)--20
• State Level Advocacy Workshop
•
( Critical Analysis of the RE Policy of
WB)
• Final Consumer Survey
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Major Findings and Learning from DREC
• In West Bengal—need for DSM Policy and regulations
• In off-grid generation-----the loose ended regulations
made at the local level is insufficient; need for more
structured regulations; metering facility should be
introduced.
• Community participation and ownership---another
crucial factor in ensuring sustainability of RE projects
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• Consumers willing to pay extra ( 1-5%) for RET.
• Hurdles in greater uptake of RET-- high investment
costs; lack of enough knowledge about maintenance;
hence the perception that solar or RET is not reliable;
and limited after-sale service
• CSOs can play a greater role in promoting uptake of RE
and DSM. Need for a sustained role of CSOs.
• Great scope for promoting RE and DSM in agriculture
sector---Solar pump sets and EE pump sets
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•
OUTCOMES OF THE PROJECT
Project
Objectives
•
Expected
Practice
Change:
Consumer groups
and
other
representative
bodies will be
invited by the
regulatory
agencies to take
part
in
their
deliberations
Degree of
Association
with relevant
Institutions
under DREC
Project
Outcomes


STRONG

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CUTS-CRC appointed as member of the
Solar PV committee for the New Town ,
Kolkata which is designated to become a
Solar City.
Has become a member of the Electricity
Regulatory Commission in West Bengal.
Ram Krishna Lok Seva Kendra (RLSK),
DREC partner in Gosaba has been assigned
the responsibility of generating, distributing
and collecting electricity bill for the residents
in Gosaba. In doing so RLSK will involve
people who used to work at the biomass
gassifier plant but had lost their jobs after
conventional grid reached the island.
Objectives
Association with
relevant
Institutions
under DREC
Project
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 CUTS CRC together with eight of their district
partners submitted (joint submission) their
comments and suggestions on the following
draft regulations published by WBERC –

Expected Practice
Change - Consumer
Groups will participate
in the regulatory
mechanism
STRONG
 “Terms and conditions of Tariff (Amendment)
Regulations, 2012”;
 “Cogeneration & Generation of Electricity from
Renewable Sources of Energy”;
 "Draft West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission
(Miscellaneous Provisions), Regulations, 2012";
 "Draft West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission
(Recovery of Expenditure for Providing New
Connections) Regulations, 2012”.
• CUTS CRC together with CCIER and Viksat submitted
comments on the Draft Policy under JNNSM – II.
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Project
Objectives
Degree of
Association
under Project
Activities
Outcomes
STRONG
 Alinan Ramakrishna Vivekananda Yuva Sangha
WBREC partnered
(ARVYS), DREC partner in Tamluk submitted
 Expected
CUTS in State
a letter to the District Magistrate (DM) of East
Practice
Level Advocacy
Midnapore, expressing ARVYS’s intent to
Change
Workshop and
organise a half day awareness programme on
Consumer
WBREDA
Energy Efficiency and Judicious Use of
Groups will
partnered CUTS in
Electricity with officials at the DM’s office.
demand for
the Dialogue and
specific
Dissemination
 CUTS International submitted a memorandum
interventions
Meeting on
to the relevant government departments and
on DSM/RE.
Financial Schemes
ministries to ensure effective implementation of
with NABARD
the RE policy in West Bengal.
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Project Objectives

Policy Change:
Regulatory agencies
will have a policy
(refinement of that
policy if already exist)
to ensure better
community
participation in
DSM/RE initiatives,
including a policy to
engage community
groups to monitor the
effectiveness of
DSM/RE initiatives.
Outcomes
Degree of
Associatio
n under
Project
Activities
Moderate

In the month of July, 2012 West Bengal formulated its RE
policy. Though the policy does not spell out scope for
community involvement,
practice change has started
happening. WBERC, WBREDA have partnered CUTS
initiatives and started supporting CSO involvement.. Have
welcomed the value added by them. Inclusion of CUTS in
Solar City New Town is an evidence.

WBREDA coming forward to partner the Dialogue Meeting
was another evidence of practice change in Wet Bengal.

Principal Secretary, Department of Power and Non
Conventional Sources, GoWB, Mr M.K. Dey, Mr Gon
Choudhury, Former Adviser to GoWB, have always been
supportive and guided CUTS’ initiatives.

However the DSM policy is yet to come..
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Findings from the
Final Consumer Survey
Out of the 513 respondents who were interviewed
during the baseline survey, a representative sample of
357 respondents were selected for the final consumer
survey.
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Findings Related to Renewable Energy
How much extra amount would you
prefer to pay over & above your present
electricity bill for getting access to clean
energy ?
13%
•
72 percent of the respondents considered it
wise to start using renewable technologies
given the rate at which electricity tariff is
increasing.
•
They are also ready to pay extra for clean
energy if it is reliable. (Figure left)
4%
23%
LESS THAN 1%
1% TO 5%
5% - 10%
10% - 20%
60%
•
86 percent of the grid connected household believe
that there is ample scope for using RE in their
premises.
Farmers - Do you think
installing solar pumpset is
worth investing and rewarding
in the long run ?
15%
YES
•
85 percent of the farmers (both grid connected and
off-grid, total 55), told that installing solar pump-set
could be more rewarding in the long run.
NO
85%
Findings Related to Renewable Energy
….(contd.)
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K-Plot is a small un-electrified island in the Sunderbans delta. Commercial activities in the island are
confined to 2 Rural Hats that the island has. There are a few diesel generator operators who supply
electricity to these shops during the evening with an average monthly expenditure ranging between 250 –
1500 for the shops. Discussion with these units revealed that they are interested to shift to RE
generated electricity provided an external agency puts up a mini solar grid ensuring reliability
and sufficient availability and the shops don’t have to pay much higher than what they are paying
at present.
A further study by CUTS involving 30 Diesel Generator Operators from the Sunderbans,
Midnapur and Nadia revealed that the major hurdles towards shifting to RE/Solar based
operations were:
• High Initial Investment
• Skepticism regarding the reliability of RE/Solar to supply sufficient energy as per
requirement.
• Space constraints to set-up plant and also its easy portability
• Impending grid connectivity
• Lack of consensus amongst businessmen/ associations (Byabshayi Samiti) towards long
term sustainability of the RE/Solar driven systems.
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Findings Related to Energy Efficiency
• 93 percent of the respondents across all stakeholder categories are now
aware about star label and its benefits.
• 78 percent of the farmers are aware about BEE labelled pumpsets and
66% felt it is worth investing in EE pumps.
• 63 percent of the farmers (grid connected) were found to be aware of
ToD tariff system but only 47 percent were actually found taking
benefits of the TOD metering system.
• A appreciable section of those surveyed said that they have shifted to
energy efficient practices like using CFL, star labelled equipment,
judiciously using energy, shifting to energy efficient pumps, etc.
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DREC has set the stage —Need for
Concerted and Sustained Efforts
• A Cadre of Capacitated CSOs have been created who have expressed interest in
doing more work related to RE/DSM.
• Agragati, a CSO from Howrah district, has already written a letter to the
concerned authority at the Block level seeking funding support from the
government to undertake awareness programmes on RE and EE in their
locality.
• RamkrishnaLokSeva Kendra (RLSK), participated in a discussion on chalking
out the annual budget for the Gosaba Block (in South 24 Parganas).
• Till now there was no budget allocation for non-conventional energy sources.
This year in the meeting of the panchayat samity, RLSK strongly advocated for
allocating financial resources for it and it was principally agreed upon.
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• Representative from a CSO - Cooch Behar
Progressive Welfare Society (CBPWS), together
with a local puja committee published key
messages of the DREC project on the back side of
the bill that were given to the community
members against subscription for the Durga Puja.
•
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CHALLENGES in the path …..
Towards greater uptake of RE
• Lack of information among consumers about existing financial schemes for
RET, about basic technology related information to ensure optimum
functioning of solar equipments; procurement methods, etc.---- so need for
sustained efforts by CSOs.
• To bring about change in consumer perception that RE technology is
unviable and unsustainable.
• Strengthen after-sale service and train local youth in repair and maintenance
of RET/ EEA.
• Link consumers to the right sources.
• ENERGY(CLEAN) SOLUTION CENTRES FOR CONSUMERS---could be a
way forward. To institutionalise the platform created by DREC so that the
efforts continue much beyond the scope of the project.
• .
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• Enhance Efficiency of RET.
• Regulations for Off-grid generation with
community participation/ ownership models
• Participatory and concerted approach of all
stakeholders towards finding solution , as has
been initiated in West Bengal.
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•
THANK YOU
•
( kg@cuts.org)