IT could energize India's power sector: Nasscom

NEW DELHI: Nasscom, the apex industry body of Software and Service Companies

in India, stressed the need for the power sector to actively adopt IT in order

to increase productivity, quality and performance, at a joint seminar held in

association with the Ministry of Power, government of India. The IT industry

shared some of the solutions that it was offering to global power majors and

also offered some practical solutions to improve the situation in India.

The seminar was inaugurated by Jaywanti Mehta, Minister of State for Power,

Government of India and the key note address was delivered by R V Shahi,

Secretary, Ministry of Power, Government of India and Nandan M Nilekani, CEO,

Infosys Technologies Ltd. Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Power, Government of

India, delivered the valedictory address at the seminar.

Speaking about the initiative, Nasscom president, Kiran Karnik said,

"SEBs loose nearly Rs. 300 billion due to transmission and distribution

losses. A developing country such as India can ill afford to absorb such a loss

in the long term. The IT industry has significant domain expertise in the power

sector and we are engaging with some of the leading energy companies globally.

There is no reason why this expertise cannot be deployed for the benefit of the

Indian power sector."

T&D losses in India are nearly 50 per cent compared to developed

countries, where the losses are about 4-8 percent. Increased use of IT will

improve the performance of electricity distribution. Collection efficiency and

customer services are other areas where the power sector can use IT to help gain

revenues.

Speaking at the seminar, Mehta, said, "The goal of the Indian power

sector is to generate 1 lakh MW power and effectively cater to all villages so

as to reach the 'Power to all' goal. IT can play a major role in helping us

achieve this objective. IT is an essential part of the process of power reforms

and the time is right for the IT industry to contribute domestically by helping

the power sector be more efficient and effective. Both IT and the Power sector

need each other for co-existence and can work in partnership to help India

emerge as a strong global economy."

A task force on IT for the power sector, set up by the Ministry of Power with

Nilekani as chairman has noted that the use of computers have started in many

State Electricity Boards (SEBs), but implementation of IT applications is still

limited. IT spending is also very low across SEBs, though in the last few years,

trends towards investment in use of IT have increased. In comparison to other

Asian countries on technology adoption, Indian SEBs are still lagging behind.

The task force is looking at ways to improve productivity, including a

comprehensive MIS system for the power sector at each level of the organization

for better decision-making, an integrated billing system for commercial and

industrial customers to be implemented to eliminate human intervention to the

minimum.