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Nilekani to give IT impetus to power sector

Nandan Nilekani

NEW DELHI: Asserting that revolutionary changes were needed in the power sector with information technology (IT) backed solutions, Nandan Nilekani of Infosys Technologies said that “smart green grids” were the future and focus had to be on consumer-oriented issues such as energy efficiency, metering and collection of bills.

Mr. Nilekani has been asked by the Minister of State for Power, Jairam Ramesh, to prepare a report on “IT roadmap for power sector”.

Mr. Nilekani has promised to submit the report by September so that work could be initiated to implant the IT initiatives at various levels.

Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Nilekani said time had come to make sophisticated use of IT in the national grid.

The focus had to be on how to improve metering and collection and trap the leakages as the power flows from the source to the destination.

One of the major reasons for giving a thrust to metering was to measure as to what was consumed by the consumers. “Technology smart metres could be installed at the customer’s convenience,” he added.

Stating that “smart grids” were the new concept unfolding in the power sector, Mr. Nilekani said the country had to be ready for the challenges due to climate changes.

This would lead to increase in renewable energy sources getting implemented and thousands of plants feeding the local population at various levels.

“The concept of ‘smart green grid’ for a new paradigm of energy needs to be thought of.

The whole concept needs a re-thinking and that is what we will be focusing in our report,” he added.

He said in the long-run, more power would flow from renewable sources including solar and wind.

Small producers should cater to the local population and feed the excess power to the grid.

“The key objective of the IT solution should be to minimise human interface in commercial processes to avoid human errors and chances of wilful mistakes. The gap in IT adoption globally and in the Indian power sector is apparent and glaring and even the rate of overall technology adoption in India is on the lower side,” he said.

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