Oil Companies should become Energy Companies: Amitabh Kant

Implementation of National Energy Storage Mission has become India’s priority to secure the leadership slot in RE and Energy Storage on global platform. In its endeavour to drive India’s ambitious National Energy Storage Mission, Energy Storage India (ESI) on Friday began with power packed sessions from International thinkers, industry experts, eminent industrialists and top most policy makers. Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Industry and Commerce addressed the Make in India session.

ESI 2019 is powered by India Energy Storage Alliance and organised by Messe Düsseldorf India and Customized Energy Solutions.

The event is supported by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology, MNRE, Government of Kerala, and NITI Aayog along with key industry conglomerates.

Talking at the Make in India session of Energy Storage India 2019,Amitabh Kant (Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog) “We have proposed to the Chief Secretaries of the States that there should be no road tax for electric vehicles and issuing green permit for EVs. When the EV revolution happens, India would be impacted in the biggest way. These initiatives are being taken to bring the ownership cost of electric vehicles at par with combustion vehicles. For India to successfully move away from fossil-fuel dependence Oil Companies should become the Energy Companies of the future.”

He added “Energy storage can also fuel public transport revolution in a big way. We have proposed pay per kilometre model for buses to transform the public transportation system. Also a huge opportunities lies in the conversion of goods mobility fleets to clean fuels such  LNG as 78% of goods in India are transported through lorries. India must seize the 81% value that lies in battery manufacturing. Energy storage and battery present a huge opportunity which we should capitalise since India will be driving the growth of the auto sector in the future.”       

Addressing the significance of Energy Storage India 2019 in Making India a global hub for advanced energy storage manufacturing, Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director, India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) said,With the anticipated launch of National Energy Storage and by creating polices for an accelerated energy storage adoption in the country, we can create significant interest for local manufacturing and system integration capabilities. We anticipate the energy storage market in India to grow to 300 GWh by 2025. Both Indian and global supply chain is gearing up to supply to this market. This could result in over $5Billion of investment in this sector by 2020.”

Addressing the gravity of the event, Thomas Schlitt (Managing Director, Messe Düsseldorf India) said, ‘ESI 2019 is the biggest stage to debate, deliberate and discuss on key issues and opportunities for Energy Storage, Smart Cities, Electricity to all, Make in India, EV transformation and RE infrastructure needs of our times. This event has gained global attention and is getting bigger and better with every edition. With more than 500+ industry experts, 80+ speakers, 50+ partners & exhibitors participating from over 25 countries, ESI 2019 is certainly the driving force for National Energy Storage Mission.”

Talking about the potential of India’s Energy Storage market, Stephen Fernands, Founder & President- Customized Energy Solutions, said “Globally storage has moved from the periphery of the electric market and closer to center stage; enabling greater concentrations of renewable generation, moving EV’s into the top tier of car sales, improving grid resiliency, and enabling a more distributed electric ecosystem. In no place in the world is the opportunity for adoption of energy storage greater than in India.”

This two day flagship conference witnessed presence of eminent industry leaders, think tanks, scholars and policy makers including  Amitabh Kant (Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog), Anil Srivastava (Director General, NITI Aayog ) Praveer Sinha, (CEO & MD, Tata Power), Vijayanad Samudrala (Chief Executive Officer, Amara Raja Batteries), Robert Pedraza (President, EnerBlu India & MENA Region), Anant Nahata (Managing Director, Exicom Power Solutions), Dr. A.K. Jindal (Vice President and Head Technical Commercial, Vehicles Engineering Research Center, Tata Motors), Naveen Munjal ( MD, Hero Electric), Anil Gupta (MD, Okaya), Hemalatha T R (MD, KELTRON, Govt of Kerala Undertaking) to name a few.