Health of discoms yet to improve

Dr.Gundu M Sabde, Chairman and Managing Director, RelyOn Solar

Initiatives started delivering
The power availability across the country has improved during last 2 years. Competitive bidding has brought down renewable energy tariffs. Dr. Gundu M Sabde, Chairman and Managing Director, RelyOn Solar says, “There is an overall improvement in coal distribution although, recently there have been issues apparently due to floods.” Many initiatives including UDAY have been launched by the government to improve the health of discoms – financially and operationally with improvement in PLF of generating plants, increased capital investment, and development of renewable energy sector. However, while commenting on game changer initiative, Dr. Gundu states that the implementation of these initiatives is yet to take off. “The major initiative required is an amendment to Electricity Act 2003,” he observes.

He further adds, there needs to be an alternative to current monopoly of discoms through deregulation of the power sector. “Electricity will become cheaper with deregulation and will lead to availability of new alternatives for the end consumers. This will increase competition in the industry and the end users will benefit by receiving better services at lower prices. Distribute power generation through solar energy will play a vital role in this transformation,” Dr. Gundu opines.

According to Dr. Gundu, the increasing renewable power generation is about to bring a transformation which will enable free market economy in the energy sector. This transformation may take a decade but its eminent not only in India but across the globe, he assures.

Yet to recover
According to Dr. Gundu, “The bottleneck in the health of power sector is the discoms. The initiatives that have been taken to improve the health of discoms are yet to show effective results.”

Therefore, he suggests, unless discoms become efficient or alternate business models come into existence the sector will not achieve long-term and sustainable growth.

RelyOn’s performance during the past one year
RelyOn Solar is benefiting from the overall growth of solar power sector in the country. The company has established it’s network across 16 states and is experiencing rapid growths in states where industrial and commercial tariffs are very high.

RelyOn Solar has launched a number of new technologies in the market in the past one year including DC water pumps, string inverter, single-axis tracking system and energy management controllers. These innovations are helping to fuel growth and we expect to grow 2-3 times over the next two-three years, announces Dr. Gundu.

Innovative strategies
RelyOn Solar is also ramping up production of DC water pumps. These new models will prove to be most efficient solar water pumps in the world, claims Dr. Gundu.