Energetica India Magazine -October 2020

NEWS POLICY NITI Aayog Declares Governing Structure of India Energy Modelling Forum NITI Aayog announced the governing structure of the India Energy Modelling Forum (IEMF) on October 8, 2020 in line with its constitution. IEMF was jointly launched by NITI Aayog and the United States Agency for Inter- national Development (USAID) under the US–India Strategic Energy Partnership on July 2, 2020. As part of the Sustainable Growth pillar of the US–India Strategic Energy Part- nership (SEP), IEMF aims to engage In- dian researchers, knowledge partners, think tanks and national and international government agencies and departments for modelling and long-term energy planning. Further, the governing structure of IEMF will consist of an inter-ministerial and a steering committee. Also, the inter-min- isterial committee will be convened by NITI Aayog and headed by its CEO, and comprise senior officials from the ministries of petroleum and natural gas; power; new and renewable energy; coal; environment, forest and climate change; and department of science and technol- ogy. Moreover, this committee will review the studies and modelling activities and provide directions and new areas of re- search. The steering committee will comprise representatives of the: 1. Government (ministries of environ- ment, forest and climate change; new and renewable energy; statistics and programme implementation; Technolo- gy Information Forecasting and Assess- ment Council; Coal Controller’s Organi- zation; Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell; Central Electricity Authority; and NITI Aayog) 2. Industry Associations (FICCI and CII) 3. Academia (IIT Bombay, Ahmedabad, and Delhi) 4. Policy research organizations, think tanks and funding agencies (Prayas En- ergy Group; Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, CEEW, CSTEP, IRADe, TERI, GIZ, DFID, WRI, PNNL, IIASA). Besides, this committee will also short- list policy issues that will be taken up for study and might form various taskforces depending on the specific studies and modelling exercises to be carried out. Additionally, the convener of this commit- tee will be selected on a rotational basis for 2 years and will act as the interface between the inter-ministerial and steer- ing committees and the working groups and taskforces. Prayas Group, Pune, will be the first convener of the steering committee. CEA-Led Central Team to Study Mumbai Outage, Assist State Govt to Deal in Future: RK Singh A central officers’ team led by the Cen - tral Electricity Authority (CEA) would be sent to Mumbai to study the power breakdown in the city on Monday, said RK Singh, Power and New and Renew- able Energy Minister. The Minister also added that this team will also assist the state government in finding solutions to such situations for the future. Singh said in a statement issued by the Power Ministry on Monday evening that “a central team will visit Mumbai to identify the problem and to find out possible solutions against such break down.” Earlier during afternoon, the Minister said that “the power supply in Mumbai has been restored substantially. Out of more than 2000 MW which went off, about 1900 MW has been restored, the remaining will be restored soon. The national grid is fine, the problem hap - pened in some parts of the state grid.” Singh also added that central power sector officers have been rendering assistance in restoring full electricity supply in Mumbai. Notably, large parts of Mumbai and its suburbs faced a power failure on Monday morning due to which sever- al trains were held up. Traffic signals at some areas were also not working. Many people have been blocked inside the lifts. The reason told behind the power out- age was failure in the state grid, and Mumbai has been supplied electricity under an ‘islanding system’. Under this system, an area is supplied electricity in such a way that it is in- sulated from any grid failure or other technical issues happening outside the zone. 54 energetica INDIA- October_2020