Prayas (Energy Group)

Last updated

Prayas
Founder Girish Sant
Type Non-governmental organization
Location
Website www.prayaspune.org/peg

Prayas (Energy Group) is an Indian research and analysis organisation working in the area of energy policy. It is part of a non-governmental charitable trust called Prayas (long name is Initiatives in Health, Energy and Parenthood) located in Pune, India. The aim of Prayas is to make energy a tool for sustainable and equitable development for all citizens, by analysis, discourse building, policy and regulatory engagements and collaboration with other civil society organisations. [1]

Contents

History

Prayas was founded in 1994 by three professionals - two doctors and an engineer – with the aim of using professional skills to promote public interest, including that of disadvantaged sections of the society and of the environment. Prayas has four groups working on different sectors - health, energy, resources & livelihoods, and learning & parenthood. [2] [3]

Girish Sant, an energy systems engineer, was the founder coordinator of Prayas. After he died in 2012, Shantanu Dixit became the group coordinator. Prayas’s first activities were in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency. It later took up studies on the socioeconomic impacts of projects such as Dabhol Power Station promoted by Enron. [4] [5] [6] [7] With the advent of reforms in the Indian electricity sector, Prayas published reports on electricity and related energy sectors. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Areas of work

The PEG team, 2017 PEG Team 2017.png
The PEG team, 2017

Prayas works on governance, regulation and policy related aspects of electricity and energy sectors. [17] There are four major areas of work, namely: Electricity generation & supply, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy and Energy, resources & development. [18] It covers many Indian states [19] [20] and national issues. [21] [22] [23] There are also a few international initiatives, undertaken with collaboration with other organisations. These include analysis of Bujagali hydro power project in Uganda, [24] [25] Electricity Governance Initiative [26] and Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative. [27] [28] [29]

Outputs

Work outputs of Prayas include reports, guides and regulatory or policy submissions, all of which are available on its website. [17] Some major outputs are, Analysis of Enron-Dabhol power project, [5] [7] Survey of Electricity Regulatory Commissions, Primer on Electricity, Solar Roof-Top Photovoltaics (PV) in India, Activist Guide for better electricity service, Challenges before the Indian Coal Sector and Energy Requirement for decent living. Prayas's outputs include newspaper articles on topics like Solar Options for Agriculture, Energy Efficiency and Clean Cooking Challenges. There are also presentations/interviews on topics like India energy challenges, Energy policy, and Indian energy sector trends. [30]

Prayas is a member of several official committees at the Central and State levels [19] [20] [21] and has been knowledge partner to Central Government institutions such as NITI Aayog. [22] [23] Various commentators and reviewers have noted that the work of Prayas has contributed to improving governance and policy in the energy sector. [31] [32] [33] [34]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electricity sector in India</span> Power generation and distribution

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The Dabhol Power Company was a company based in Maharashtra, India, formed in 1992 to manage and operate the controversial Dabhol Power Plant. The Dabhol plant was built through the combined effort of Enron as the majority share holder, and GE, and Bechtel as minority share holders. GE provided the generating turbines to Dabhol, Bechtel constructed the physical plant, and Enron was charged with managing the project through Enron International. From 1992 to 2001, the construction and operation of the plant was mired in controversies related to corruption in Enron and at the highest political levels in India and the United States. The price that the state electricity board would have to pay for electricity produced by DPC was more than 20 times what it paid for hydroelectricity.

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Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), a key regulator of power sector in India, is a statutory body functioning with quasi-judicial status under sec – 76 of the Electricity Act 2003. CERC was initially constituted on 24 July 1998 under the Ministry of Power's Electricity Regulatory Commissions Act, 1998 for rationalization of electricity tariffs, transparent policies regarding subsidies, promotion of efficient and environmentally benign policies, and for matters connected Electricity Tariff regulation. CERC was instituted primarily to regulate the tariff of Power Generating companies owned or controlled by the government of India, and any other generating company which has a composite scheme for power generation and interstate transmission of energy, including tariffs of generating companies.

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Girish Sant was a noted energy analyst held in high esteem as an energy policy commentator from India. He co-founded the non-governmental organisation Prayas in Pune, India. His analytical inputs helped shape India's energy policy over the decades of the 1990s and 2000s. He was considered an effective team builder and mentored several energy researchers and activists.

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References

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  4. "Girish Sant-Always two steps ahead". Economic & Political Weekly. 47 (10). 10 March 2012.
  5. 1 2 Sant, Girish; Dixit, Shantanu; Wagle, Subodh (17 June 1995). "Dabhol Project PPA-Structure and Techno-economic implications". Economic & Political Weekly. 30 (24).
  6. Purkayastha, Prabir (17 February – 2 March 2001). "A disastrous deal". Frontline. 18 (4).
  7. 1 2 Prayas Energy Group (18 June 2005). "Restarting Dabhol". Economic & Political Weekly. 40 (25).
  8. Sant, Girish; Dixit, Shantanu (12 April 1997). "How Reliable are Agricultural Power Use Data?". Economic & Political Weekly. 32 (15).
  9. Sant, Girish; Dixit, Shantanu; Wagle, Subodh (25 April 1998). "WB-Orissa Model of Power Sector Reform-Cure Worse than Disease". Economic & Political Weekly. 33 (17).
  10. Josey, Ann; N, Sreekumar (10 October 2015). "Is Anything Being Learnt from Past Programmes? Power for All". Economic & Political Weekly. 50 (41).
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  12. Singh, Daljit; Chunekar, Aditya; Sant, Girish (2012). "Improving energy efficiency in India: need for a targeted and tailored strategy". Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment. WIREs Energy Environ 2012. 1 (3): 298–307. doi:10.1002/wene.45. S2CID   109483423.
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  14. Gambhir, Ashwin; Sant, Girish; Deshmukh, Ranjit (20 March 2010). "Need to Realign India's National Solar Mission". Economic & Political Weekly. 45 (12).
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  20. 1 2 "Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission – Constitution of State Advisory Committee" (PDF). TSERC. 9 February 2015.
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  23. 1 2 "Planning Commission Launches India Energy Security Scenario 2047". Planning Commission. 1 March 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
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  25. Lilley, Sasha (28 August 2003). "AES Backs Out of Bujagali Dam Project". CorpWatch.
  26. "Empowering people: A governance analysis of electricity" (PDF). World Resources Institute. 2007.
  27. "Prayas-Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative". www.watchyourpower.org. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  28. Martin, Sarah; Davidson, Dana (2016). "How open data can help electrify India — and the world". World Resources Institute.
  29. Sengupta, Debjoy (26 July 2016). "Contrary to government's claims, small towns, rural areas still suffer from power outages". Economic Times.
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  34. Pradhan, Dharmendra, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas (6 May 2016). "Tweet on Prayas article on LPG connections to use". Twitter.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)