Energetica India Magazine -October 2020

NEWS ACCOLADES NTPC Tops among Indian PSUs in Forbes World’s Best Employer 2020 Adding another feather in its cap, coun- try’s largest power producer NTPC Ltd has emerged as the topper among In- dian public sector undertakings (PSUs) under World’s Best Employer this year in a list published by Forbes. On this achievement, the company said that the recognition is testimony to it’s commitment towards inculcating best in class practices that are thought- fully designed and robustly executed. During lockdown phase and in subse- quent unlock period, NTPC Learning and Development strategy moulded it- self significantly to further evolve as per the requirement of the current scenario. Its training methodology enriched the lives of thousands of its employees through intensive digitisation and on- line training enabling them to avail ser- vices even from remote locations. The modules have helped thousands of workforce from NTPC to grow and think beyond the professional sphere. The company said that it has been successfully innovating and introduc- ing people practices in the domain of hiring, engagement, diversity & inclu- sion, rewards & recognition, and per- formance management. Recently, it had initiated an ‘NTPC Se- ries’ on success stories beyond official work, ‘Ambition, Growth, Success Be- yond Work’, a series on the achieve- ments of employees beyond their offi - cial assignments. Around 160,000 full-time and part-time workers from 58 countries working for businesses with operations in multi- ple nations or regions took the survey and these participants rated their ea- gerness to endorse their employers to others. CSIR-KPIT Successfully Run Trials of India’s 1st Hydrogen Fuel Cell Fitted Car The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and KPIT had suc- cessfully run trials of the country’s first Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) prototype car running on an indigenously developed fuel cell stack at CSIR-National Chemi- cal Laboratory, Pune. Further, the fuel cell is a low tempera- ture PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) type Fuel Cell that operates at 65-75 degree centigrade, which is suitable for vehicular applications. Significantly, the two organisations have successfully developed a 10 kWe auto- motive grade LT-PEMFC fuel cell stack based on the CSIR’s know-how, and the heart of the PEM fuel cell technology in- cludes the membrane electrode assem- bly, which is wholly a CSIR knowhow. Prof. Ashwini Kumar Nangia, Direc- tor, CSIR-NCL while congratulating the teams on their first successful car run on hydrogen fuel cell using indigenous CSIR-NMITLI technology and KPIT as industry partner commented that, “the time has come for renewable energy based on hydrogen as fuel to power transportation in the country. This will not only reduce the petrol, diesel im- port bill but hydrogen is the cleanest fuel with water as the only by-product. A long term investment of CSIR under NMITLI in a niche energy area has come to fruition.” On the other hand, KPIT brought in their expertise in stack engineering which in- cluded light-weight metal bipolar plate and gasket design, development of the balance of plant (BoP), system integra- tion, control software and electric pow- ertrain that enabled running the fuel cell vehicle. Commenting on the significant mile - stone, Ravi Pandit, Chairman, KPIT said, “the technology has a great fu- ture and owing to its indigenous devel- opment, is expected to be more com- mercially viable than ever before. It is an important technology that will help India significantly reduce pollution and reduce our fossil fuel imports.” In 2016, CSIR-NCL and CSIR-CECRI as part of the Industry Originated Project (IOP) category of the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) scheme partnered with KPIT for the development of an automotive grade PEM Fuel Cell technology. Additionally, the trials were run on a bat- tery-electric passenger car platform ret- rofitted with the Fuel Cell Stack. However, it is expected that the technol- ogy is more suited for commercial ve- hicles (CV) such as buses and trucks. Battery electric buses/ trucks require a large battery to achieve the desired op- erating range. In comparison, HFC tech- nology requires a much smaller battery for a very large operating range. Hence, HFC technology offers more promise for the CV segment. 61 energetica INDIA- October_2020