The Energy and Resources Institute, India
About TERI
TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) is an autonomous, not-for-profit, research institute established in 1974, deeply committed to every aspect of sustainable development. All activities in TERI move from formulating local and national level strategies to suggesting global solutions to critical energy and environment related issues. TERI’s strength lies in its multidisciplinary research team that works across its divisions which encourages exchange of ideas and information across subject boundaries and forms an interdisciplinary linkage. TERI’s organizational structure reflects its flexibility and its largely project-based functioning; teams of professionals with specific skills are put together to match the requirements of a given project. Grouping of the staff into Areas and broad-based Divisions is TERI’s way of encouraging exchange of ideas and information across subject boundaries, and forming interdisciplinary linkages. The current assignment will be lead by the Centre for Distributed Generation (CDG) Area of the Decentralised Energy Solutions Division.
For more details on TERI, please visit www.teriin.org
With a vision to deliver sustainable power solutions to grid connected as well as off grid areas in a sustainable manner – not only in India but also in others parts of the globe, the Decentralised Energy Solutions division was established in TERI. Understanding the diversity in activities related to electrification, the division consists of team of professionals with a mix of wide experience and youthful energy, with multi-disciplinary skills in engineering, economics, planning, management, operations research and statistics, and social sciences.
The Division has been in the forefront for scaling up off-grid rural electrification by assimilating lessons and experiences from pilot projects. The Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) Campaign initiated by TERI is the flagship program of the division. The LaBL Campaign aims to bring light into the lives of one billion rural people by displacing the kerosene and paraffin lanterns with solar lighting devices, thereby facilitating education of children; providing better illumination and kerosene smoke free indoor environment for women to do household chores; and providing opportunities for livelihoods both at the individual level and at village level.
The details of the LaBL campaign can also be seen at http://labl.teriin.org
The Division has also been involved in designing and testing the concept of franchisee in the off-grid rural electricity distribution business. The franchisee, or the energy service provider, works on an incentive and commission basis to sell the electricity services from an SPV (solar photovoltaic)–biomass hybrid mini grid owned by the state. The Division is also acting as a consultant to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy under a World Bank supported project on Biomass for Sustainable Development and is assisting MNRE in mainstreaming the Village Energy Security Programme. The Division is also working with the World Bank to develop a sustainable service delivery model for improvements in rural electricity supply through distributed generation and supply of power using renewable sources of energy. The Division is also knowledge partner to the Ministry of Power and assisting the Ministry in formulating the guidelines for DDG program under RGGVY and was also a member of the 11th Five Year Plan Working Group on Power, 2006. The Division also worked with the RSG division in TERI to evaluate franchisee system in power distribution in the select districts of five states to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the different franchise models, and suggest a road map for strengthening their operation.
Upholding TERI’s mandate of capacity building, the Division also organizes regular training programmes and workshops on rural electricity access and distributed generation. Currently, the Division is undertaking training of trainer’s (ToT) programme on rural electricity distribution franchisee under RGGVY. The overall goal of the ToT programmes is to conduct a series of training programs in various RGGVY states to build necessary skills and capacities of franchisers (Power Utility) so as to develop a strong team of utility professionals for imparting training to grass root franchisees in the different states for effective distribution and management of rural electricity services.
With the Government of India focusing on ICT (information and communications technology) as the backbone for rural development, the professionals of the Division designed and developed a Solar PV-AC mains hybrid solution for the rural applications. This application, aimed at ensuring reliable power supply to rural ICT-based service centres, is currently under field-testing at various locations. The Division is also promoting the concept of solar technology platform and solar mini utility with a view to provide reliable and quality energy services for different rural applications.
TERI is the best known energy research institute in India and its Decentralised Energy Solutions division will bring its wide experience and youthful energy, with multi-disciplinary skills in engineering, economics, planning, management, operations research and statistics, and social sciences.
Lead members of the team are:
- Ms Akanksha Chaurey – Director, Decentralised Energy Solutions Division - view profile
- Mr. Debajit Palit – Fellow and Area Convenor, Decentralised Energy Solutions Division
- Ms Parimita Mohanty – Researcher in renewable energy for Sustainable Development
