Duration : 5 Years

About the Agreement


The Norwegian Framework Agreement (NFA) between the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and TERI, 2008-2013, comes at a critical time in global history when the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) has reported on its assessments of the changes in climate that the world is locked into due to its anthropogenic emissions and has warned of the little time available for meaningful action to address the consequences of such changes. There seems little doubt that climate change will be the single most difficult challenge to international sustainable development, affecting the North and the South, the developed, the emerging, and the developing economies. Inattention to developing adaptive capacities could create secondary spill over impacts, for example, undermine the capacity of states to provide opportunities and services that sustain livelihoods, which in turn can increase the risk of conflict, with serious consequences at regional and global scales. Countries are beginning to take stock of the way they do business, structure their energy economies and live their lives, albeit slowly. Global and national energy security concerns too have intensified in recent years. Beyond the conventional definition that is supply-oriented and is largely geo-political in essence, there is now a reorientation of energy security debates towards wider energy-environment-equity issues. Disconnects between energy consumers and producers, between large and small energy sector players, between carbon emitters and those most vulnerable to climate change impacts are now part of the wider debate on global energy security.

At the national level, India has announced its National Action Plan for Climate Change and the eight Missions and there is need now to begin to put in place initiatives to implement the proposed actions. It is evident that the ambition of the Action Plan requires new thinking and multiple actors and cannot be expected to be implemented by the government alone. This is a time also when India has a great opportunity to pull its population out of poverty, a key requirement of which is the availability of energy to many of its people who are either unserved or underserved. The Indian energy sector will be adopting nationally appropriate measures to contain its carbon intensity.

This is a time when national and global concerns are merging and calling for much greater collective action and multi-actor responses, more dedicated research, and greater financing to enable action. This Framework Agreement is one such initiative at cooperative action which seeks to strengthen linkages between Norway and India, through a focused set of activities and initiatives that address larger global concerns of climate change and energy security.

The goal of the framework agreement is to address global concerns of energy security and climate change through cooperation between TERI, Norwegian and other third party institutions on climate change, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), renewable energy, and energy policy.

The Outputs are disseminated through the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS), which provides a unique platform for government, civil society, corporate sector, academia, and policy makers across the globe for high level discussion around sustainable development issues. The Agreement also supports a Specialized Library on Climate Change (SLCC) which functions as a resource centre to compile, consolidate, and disseminate information in the fields of climate change and energy security. The membership of the SLCC is open for research professionals, scientists, technologists, policymakers, and students across the country.

Divisions in TERI involved

  • Industrial Energy Efficiency
  • Earth Science and Climate Change
  • Social Transformation
  • Green Growth and Development
  • Sustainable Development Outreach
  • Knowledge Management
  • Resources, Regulation & Global Security
  • Water Resources
  • Energy Environment Technology Development

Objectives and Outcomes

Overall Programme Goal

To address global and national concerns of energy security and climate change through cooperation between TERI, Norwegian and other third party institutions on climate change, clean energy, and energy policy.

Programme Objectives

  • To address knowledge gaps in 3 strategic areas:
    • Clean energy
    • Climate change
    • Energy security and climate change
  • Promote dialogue among stakeholders, and
  • Build capacity and catalyse action

Expected Outcomes

  • Contribution to the implementation of India's NAPCC and greater knowledge of climate change impacts on India
  • Contribution to multilateral approaches on energy security and climate change
  • Increased awareness and stakeholder engagement


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Programme Themes and Activities

The Programme will focus on three themes: Clean Energy Options, Climate Change, and the interfaces of Energy Security and Climate Change and six activities within them.

Clean Energy

Climate Change

Climate Change and Energy Security


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Gender Mainstreaming

The Norwegian Framework Agreement has a strong focus on addressing gender inequities in terms of energy access and climate change in most projects under the agreement. Emphasis is being laid on generating gender disaggregated data that could be used to suggest policy recommendations to address the inequities. These recommendations will form a part of a more holistic policy approach at the country level and the activities and work packages under the agreement are working on this.

The teams for each of the projects has a good gender balance and comprise of young, middle level, and senior researchers, representative of the workforce of TERI.

Gender Mainstreaming in Norwegian Framework Agreement

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Target Audience

The target audience will be India in general, and institutions and organization in particular, as well as third party institutions, through capacity building, sectoral impacts assessments, dialogues, and more targeted efforts at incentivising energy change and addressing climate concerns through clean development mechanism, greater penetration of renewable energy and initiatives for improved energy policy.

Through this proposed cooperation with Norway, TERI will also provide useful inputs to the process of international negotiations post 2012 and would build capacity of stakeholders in the country with respect to their participation in climate change mitigation activities.

Key stakeholder groups that this Programme of activities will target and benefit are the rural poor with no access to clean energy, women and children, research community, the business and the policy community, academicians, corporates, and civil society at large.

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TERI-NFA Working Paper Series

  1. Energy in the international policy arena: Determining the role of multilateral institutions
  2. Are weak IPRs acting as barriers to transfer of climate friendly technologies: Assessing IPR regimes in five Asian Countries
  3. Potential impact of carbon barriers to trade: The case of India's exports to the US under border tax adjustment
  4. Rural energy access and inequalities: An analysis of NSS data from 1999-00 to 2009-10
  5. Rural Energy Transitions: Insights from Madhya Pradesh
  6. Role of technology advancement in promoting renewable energy based mini-grids
  7. Earth System Model Installation at TERI HPC: Norway - India Collaboration
  8. Interannual variability of tropical climate in NorESM-1M Historical simulations: preliminary analysis
  9. Governance in Coal Mining: Issues and Challenges
  10. Variables that affect implementation of mitigation actions
  11. Defining Sustainable Urban Mobility
  12. Sustainable Urban Transport Indicators
  13. Policies for Sustainable Mobility
  14. Governance of renewable energy in India Issues and challenges
  15. Governance of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Sector in India A Status Note
  16. Mapping Multilateral Energy Institutions History and Current Trends
  17. Price Volatility Information Flows and the Norwegian Experience Managing Expectations in Globalized Oil and Gas Markets
  18. Global Oil Markets and India's Vulnerability to Oil Shocks
  19. Centre-staging Natural Gas International trends and their relevance for India, A Status Note
  20. International Fuel Market Behaviour and Impact
  21. Electricity Governance in India Regulatory Governance of Maharashtra Power Sector
DSDS

Clean Energy

The research agenda on the theme of clean energy has two important dimensions. While the first dimension of innovation focuses on use of latest technological and scientific know-how in designing, developing, customising and testing technologies to meet specific end-use applications of rural communities in reliable and cost-effective manner, the second dimension of innovation focuses on how communities associate themselves with the newly introduced technologies and accept/enhance the uptake of energy services for their socio-economic benefits and transition to sustainable developmental practices.

The complete value chain of energy innovation rests upon these two broad dimensions. The framing of these two research dimensions are made in such a way that on one hand it revolves around design, testing and customization of technologies based on the Indian rural market and on the other hand on societal dimension of technological innovation and understanding the dynamics of technological appropriateness and its deployment.

Clean Energy: Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India

Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India

Background

'Innovating to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India' is one of the projects under the ‘TERI-Framework Funding for Institutional Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change' signed between the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TERI.

The research agenda in this project has two important dimensions. The first focuses on the use of latest technological and scientific know-how in designing, developing, customizing and testing technologies to meet specific end-use applications of rural communities in reliable and cost-effective manner. The second focuses on how communities associate themselves with the newly-introduced technologies and accept/enhance the uptake of energy services for their socio-economic benefits and transition to sustainable developmental practices.

The complete value chain of energy innovation rests upon these two broad dimensions. These dimensions have been framed in such a way that they factor design, testing, and customization of technologies based on the Indian rural market and take into account the societal dimension of technological innovation as well as the dynamics of technological appropriateness and its deployment.

One of the key tasks of executing the project involves identification of appropriate livelihoods for intervention and the impact of energy interventions on the identified livelihoods and associated lives. The research agenda is carried through five specific work packages for a period of three years (2010-2013).

These include:

Work Package-1(WP-1):Developing and customizing renewable energy technologies keeping the focus on Indian rural markets and needs.

Work Package-2(WP-2):Testing and assessing the performance of these technologies at the lab scale.

Work package-3 (WP-3):Demonstrating 2-3 customised technologies at 6-8 locations in India.

Work package-4 (WP-4):Conducting technical training programmes at all locations used for demonstration.

Work package-5 (WP-5):Disseminating the findings to the research communities by organizing an international workshop/ knowledge dissemination programme.

The project is currently being implemented in four Indian states i.e. Odisha, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Under this project, 2-3 customized, need-based and application-specific, clean energy based technologies will be demonstrated at around 10-12 locations in the four states. Subsequently, participatory action research will be carried out at these locations to understand emerging socio-technical linkages.

Objectives

  • Designing, testing, and customisation of clean energy technologies (e.g. solar, wind, battery chargers, and hybrids) for various livelihood generation activities (such as lighting, communication, drinking water, health services etc.)
  • Demonstrating the above technologies and assessing the impact on livelihood activities in select locations and creating local technical capabilities for their servicing. This is aimed at a comparative performance assessment of the various technologies at different locations and for different applications.

Expected Outcomes

  • Increased livelihood generation opportunities, enhanced quality of life and improved energy access through installation and commissioning of clean energy based appropriate technologies.
  • Increased capacity building through training (on operation and maintenance, market linkages etc.) and research studies.


Clean Energy

Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India

Contribution to implementation of National Solar Mission

  • Development of framework and improved tools for assessing the impact of clean energy based technological interventions on the socio-economic and cultural aspects of communities.
  • Enhanced capacity for operating, managing, sustaining, and up-scaling clean energy based livelihood projects through training programmes.
  • Development of menu of technological options for use of solar energy based on livelihood generation.

Key activities and achievements

Clean Energy: Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India

Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India

Image Gallery

  • DC Micro-grid Configuration, Uttar Pradesh

  • DC Micro-grid in Jagdishpur, Uttar Pradesh

  • Training Programme at Solar Multi-Utility, Orissa

  • Three phase Off-grid Solar PV Power Plant in Raisen, Madhya Pradesh

  • Solar Multi-Utility, Orissa

  • Solar Multi-Utility, Madhya Pradesh

  • Smart Controller Laboratory

  • Self Help Group of SMU at Chikli, Madhya Pradesh

  • Rooftop Solar PV System, Orissa

  • Rooftop Solar PV System, Madhya Pradesh

  • Powerloom in Uttar Pradesh

  • Livelihood Activites in Madhya Pradesh

Publications

--- Policy Briefs

Coming soon...

--- Other publications under NFA

  • Smart Mini Grid: An innovative distributed generation based energy system
    Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT Asia), 2013 IEEE
    Mukesh Gujar, Alekhya Datta and Parimita Mohanty

    With the depleting energy resources, enhancing energy-security and energy-access, particularly in emerging economies is one of the major challenges that one has to deal with. In addition to managing the existing energy resources, generating power effectively and intelligently is an equally important agenda at the national level in India. Supplementing the establishment of large power plants from conventional energy sources, there is also a need to focus on distributed small scale generation of power particularly from renewable energy sources. Although Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) need additional infrastructure and investment to connect them to the grid, these technologies obviate the need for an expensive transmission system and reduce transmission and distribution (T&D) losses. A better way to realize the emerging potential of distributed generation is to take a system approach which views generation and associated loads as a subsystem or a `Micro-grid' [1]. During disturbances, the generation and corresponding loads can separate from the distribution system to isolate the Micro-grid's load from the disturbance without harming the transmission grid's integrity. To deal with these crucial issues of power and energy, the more appropriate solution is the Smart Mini Grid system which can optimally and intelligently manage the load and distributed generation resources so that maximum utilization of the renewable energy resources with a lower installed renewable energy capacity and smaller batteries can be ensured by coordinating the energy demands with the electricity production, fossil fuel generation can be minimized through the more efficient control of energy loads and power quality can be improved The paper presents the relevance of Smart Mini Grid as well as its existing challenges. It has also briefly pointed out the major initiatives taken by various institutions/industry in the smart mini/micro-grid sectors in India. The main purpose of this pap- r is to present the design of TERI's own Smart Mini Grid system which integrated various distributed energy sources such as Solar PV, small wind electric generator Biomass gassifier system, Diesel-Set (DG) and showcase how such implementation can be used in other similar applications for improving the efficiency, reliability and flexibility of the overall system.
  • Role of smart technologies in promoting distributed generation based mini-grids: Based on project experiences and lesson learned
    Clean Energy Solutions: A Compilation of Studies from TERI India, Prepared for the 4th US-India Energy Partnership Summit,
    May 13-14, 2013, Washington DC
    Parimita Mohanty, Mukesh Gujar, Alekhya Datta, and K Rahul Sharma

    Energy is the key to economic development and sustenance of future world. Energy demand in India as well as in many countries across the world is ever increasing and expected to grow in future. If the Indian power scenario is viewed, although India's power sector has shown impressive growth over the last few years, the demand for power has increased more rapidly than its availability (The demand for electricity has increased at a rate of 6.27 per cent in the past two decades.) In addition to shortage of power and energy demand for the existing consumers, there is around 1.44 billion population in the world without access to electricity, out of which around 288 million of them are in India. Again India has more than 3.10 lakh telecom towers, 60 per cent of their power requirement are met by diesel gen-set which together consumes about 2 billion liters of diesel each year and result in 5.3 million tons of CO2 emission). Against this backdrop, Distributed Generation based power solutions have been considered as one of the feasible options, where Distributed Energy Resources can not only deliver power to the local areas (where it is installed and distributed) more efficiently and reliably, but it can also feed excess power, if any, to the utility grid. In addition, these systems are environmentally benign. Full text
  • Accelerated Deployment of Smart Grid Technologies in India - Present Scenario, Challenges and Way Forward
    IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter: September, 2013 Issue (IEEE-PES ISGT 2014, USA)
    Er. Alekhya Datta and Dr. Parimita Mohanty

    The idea behind 'Smart Grid Vision for India' is to transform the Indian power sector into a secure, adaptive, sustainable, and digitally enabled ecosystem that provides reliable and quality energy for all with active participation of stakeholders. Realizing the growing importance of Smart Grid technologies in the Indian power sector, very recently Ministry of Power (MoP) in-collaboration with India Smart Grid Task Force (ISGTF) has shortlisted fourteen (14 Nos.) Smart Grid pilot projects that are planned to be executed in power distribution sector in India. As per the ‘Smart Grid Roadmap for India’, these pilot projects are expected to help technology section guides and business case developments for larger projects in the next phase, while showcasing the relevance of Smart Grid on different aspects such as, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Outage Management System (OMS), Peak Load Management System (PLMS), Renewable Energy (RE) Integration etc.

    The main objective of this article is to underline the present scenario of those selected Smart Grid pilots in India, including proposed state-of-the-art Technology Integration, Consumer Coverage (Base), and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This article will also capture the Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Smart Grid Maturity Model (SGMM), developed by the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition (GIUNC) as a management tool, towards the Smart Grid transformation to assess the performance (including, current status) of those utilities responsible for pilot demonstrations and provide necessary recommendations to use this framework for establishing future strategies and work plans as pertain to Smart Grid implementations in the country. This write-up will further emphasize on the progress of applicable Smart Grid interoperability and standards relevant to the Indian context, development of indigenous low-cost smart solutions, gap analysis and appropriate changes conducive to the deployment of Smart Grid pilot projects, and discussion on National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) in India.
  • A Perspective on Enterprise GIS in India
    IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter - July 2013, IEEE Smart Grid Portal
    Alekhya Datta, and Parimita Mohanty

    The integration of Enterprise GIS with different aspects of a smart grid can improve the efficiency of a utility's electrical system, enable intelligent demand side management and enhance energy security through sustainable business intelligence. Wider application of GIS will be particularly useful in India, where consumption monitoring, detection of tampering and reduction of commercial and technical line losses are high priorities.
    Full text
  • Innovative Smart Mini-Grid based Off-Grid Power Solutions for enhancing Energy Security in Rural and Urban Scenario
    Smartelec 2013, 16-17 April 2013 at Vadodara, Gujarat
    Mukesh Gujar, Alekhya Datta, and Parimita Mohanty

    About 400 million peoples in India have no access to electricity. Of these, the majority lives in remote, non-electrified villages. Even in electrified areas, powers outages are the fact of life. To top it all the entire national grid had collapsed for 2 days in July. This blackout, now recognized as the world’s largest, affected the lives of more than 600 million people. Renewable energy sectors got specific attention in planning process in India since the Sixth Five Year Plan with specific allocated budget. In 7th plan, the focus was on development and dissemination of renewable energy systems, whereas from the 8th plan and onwards the emphasis is on developing integrated strategies to make renewable energy system techno-commercially viable. Solar Energy is the need for the developing country like India where large section of country’s population is primarily located in rural areas and lacks access to electricity. Electricity is vital for a better quality of life - along with reduction in poverty and improvement in education, health and livelihoods. Rural areas in the country mainly lack in distribution infrastructure and itself developing a reliable distribution infrastructure will have a major fixed cost which the utilities presently not in a position to support. With this backdrop, JNNSM Phase-II would focus on standalone solar off-grid generating systems which would facilitate the rural consumers to meet their routine requirements of electricity. During JNNSM Phase-II, it envisaged that around 20,000 villages shall be covered through 'Energy Access' scheme by way of deployment of Off-Grid electricity generation projects.

    The deployment of these systems in encouraged by a mix of capital subsidies and soft loans and also by appointed channel partners who could implement these systems. However, it is the private sector - a mix of social entrepreneurs, NGOs, non-profit organization and corporations which is playing a major role in deployment of these systems. With the falling cost of PV systems, increasing awareness and advances in technology ,adaptation of off-grid PV in set to increase at a fast pace. From a product based approach, off-grid PV is evolving into a system based approach. One area where solar has made significant inroads is in replacing the diesel used in telecommunication towers. In India there are about 450,000 telecommunication tower that consumes about 3.4 million liter of diesel every year. Of these, at least 200,000 towers can be powered by solar and several telecom companies have actively started to install off-grid PV systems to power these towers.

    This discussion paper conveys the role of technological advancement and its up-gradation, which can then be implemented using smart mini-grid system, applicable to both the segments (rural as well as urban and peri urban) and what all the steps can be followed in order to promote such systems in the field. In this discussion paper, three case studies on innovative off-grid power solutions from TERI‟s own work and extensive research has been considered, which describe how the advancement in technology and its innovative cost effective solutions to meet the energy requirement as per the local needs such as livelihood generations, creating local jobs etc. particularly in remote villages in the country.
    Full text
  • A Pricing Strategy for Micro Enterprises in Decentralized Electricity Generation Projects based on Renewable Energy
    International Conference on Micro Perspectives for Decentralized Energy Supply, Technical University of Berlin, 27 Feb. - 2 March 2013
    K Rahul Sharma, Rohit Sen

    This paper analyses a Solar-PV based 'Multi Utility Business Centre' (MUBC) which provides electricity for productive applications. The analysis is of three components of this system, the Solar-PV power plant, the MUBC which owns the appliances, and the customers who obtain services from the centre. The objective is to develop a model for how different business activites can be prices, cross-subsidized and what effect the ratio of equity to grant has at various points in the system; for use in the design of sustainable business models for off-grid power.
    MPDES 2013
  • Enterprise GIS and Smart Electric Grid for India's Power Sector
    IEEE Xplore (Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference 2013, Washington - DC), 24-27 Feb. 2013 [Print ISBN: 978-1-4673-4894-2]
    Alekhya Datta, and Parimita Mohanty

    Smart Electric Grid is an important as well as intelligent element towards the development of an energy independent and environmentally sustainable society. Although there is no universal definition for Smart Grid, it has various functionalities towards modernization of the electrical grid by using digital systems and addressing disturbances via automated prevention and various other novel ideas. But a smarter grid needs a real-time analysis of the network. Therefore to provide accurate scientific decisions, the idea of integrating enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS) with Smart Electric Grid presented in this paper so as to make the grid apt in advanced decision making. It also helps in modeling the workflow of a network by understanding the relationship between network and surroundings and by controlling all parts of the grid. With the increasing demand of electricity in almost every sector, power sector utilities of India need to perform more effectively and in efficient manner. For this purpose, a Smart Electric Grid along with enterprise GIS is one of the evolutionary idea which can facilitate a cleaner environment, efficient load management and fully automated systems. GIS enabled system also helps to establish a link between the surroundings, the consumers and the grid and thus making it proficient in automation and efficient energy consumption and customer awareness by maintaining a relational database including all the required spatial information. The main objective of this study is to showcase the integration of enterprise GIS with Smart Electric Grid to provide an end-to-end solution for the utilities to improve the efficiency of the electrical system, enable intelligent demand side management and enhance energy security through sustainable business model. Full text
  • A Case of Community based Renewable Energy Project in India
    Conference on Innovation for Resilience and Transformation, The 3rd Environmental Innovators Symposium, December 2012, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
    Banerjee Manjushree

    The paper presents a case study of use of solar photovoltaic based micro-grids for meeting basic lighting requirements of rural community during peak demand hours (6 pm to 10 pm). Thirty communities have adopted micro-level (75 Wp to 1 kWp) solar based off-grid systems, where the systems are owned and managed by local entrepreneurs with45% equity stake. Case study analysis of this project undertaken by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India highlights that in grid connected (or, otherwise) rural communities sans assured lighting services, latent market for decentralized alternatives can be tapped into for profitable business. An analysis of the project output concludes that decentralized solutions and private investments will play a major role not only in providing universal modern energy access but also in enhancing livelihood options at village level.
  • Concept of Off-Grid solar multi-utility centre for livelihood generation in rural areas
    International Conference on Advances in Energy Research, IIT Bombay, 2011
    Nivedita Thakur, Parimita Mohanty, Akanksha Chaurey, Arvind Sharma and A.S.Srinidhi

    The paper presented at a conference reports the work carried out under one of the work-packages of the NFA with TERI (2008-2013) that includes a mandate of demonstration of customized SMUs in various locations in India. A pilot project under this concept that has been designed, developed and demonstrated in a remote village named Dakshin Dimoria in the state of Assam. This paper presents the various stages involved in design, development, and utilization of the SMU covering scoping study, demand assessment, customization of the SMU design according to available appliances, description of the various sub-systems, and services and utilization monitoring.
    ICAER 2011
  • Madhya Pradesh Baseline and Technology Scoping Report
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  • Odisha Baseline and Technology Scoping Report
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  • Training and Capacity Building Report - Odisha (NFA)
    Read more
  • Uttar Pradesh Baseline and Installation Report
    Read more
  • Uttar Pradesh Technical Scoping Report for Solar DC Micro Grids
    Read more
  • AC Minigrid Technical Performance Assessment Format
    Read more

Events

Appropriate Battery Technologies for Small Scale Solar Applications
Date: 24 - 25 April 2014
Venue: TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

Appropriate Battery Technologies for Small Scale Solar ApplicationsA Two day Training Programme on Appropriate Batteries used for various Applications was organized on 24-25 April 2014 at TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The training programme was organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Regnant Group with the support of Battery Society of India and the Royal Embassy of Norway.

During TERI's experience of implementing clean energy systems under the Norwegian Framework Agreement (NFA) project (Work Package I: Clean Energy Interventions for Livelihood Generation), a need to enhance the skills of grassroots workers on battery testing and management was found.

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State level Practitioners Training Workhshop: Rural Livelihood and Access to Renewable Energy
Date: 2 January 2014
Venue: Bhubhaneshwar, Odhisha

State level Practitioners Training Workhshop: Rural Livelihood and Access to Renewable EnergyTERI organised a Practitioner’s workshop on Augumenting Livelihoods through Renewable Energy in Rural Areas at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar (XIMB) on the 2nd of January 2014. This workshop, organised with the joint support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy (NFA Project - Clean Energy Interventions for Livelihood Generation) and the UK Research Council and DfID (OASYS South Asia Project) aimed to bring together practitioners working in the fields of energy and livelihoods to collectively discuss the synergies between renewable energy and livelihood generation in rural areas.

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TERI signs MoU with General MicroGrids Inc.
Date: 6 November 2013

TERI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the General MicroGrids Inc., USA, for Micro-Grid Project Collaboration to facilitate clean energy access in India. TERI has also joined Santa Fe Microgrid Systems Laboratory (MSL), and MSL Research Network (MRN) as a founding member. The initial MRN cohort comprises MSL members - Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and other international partners and regional anchors. TERI's state-of-the-art Smart Controller Laboratory (SCLab) will serve as the anchor Smart Grid/Micro-Grid/Mini-Grid research laboratory for the South Asian region.


Smart Design Technology for Clean Energy Applications Conference 2013
Date: 9 January 2013
Venue: Shangrila's Eros Hotel, Ashoka Road, New Delhi
Coordinators: Alekhya Datta, and Mukesh Gujar

Smart Design Technology for Clean Energy Applications Conference 2013Smart Design Technology for Clean Energy Applications Conference 2013' was jointly organized by TERI and National Instruments (NI) India on 9 January 2013 at Shangrila's Eros Hotel, New Delhi. The conference provided an international platform for comprehensive discussion on issues pertaining to clean energy, smart design techniques and their applications.

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Distributed Generation based Smart Mini Grid System using NI CompactRIO and LabVIEW
TERI has won the Second prize (Runner-up) award under the 'Research' category in the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards (GSDAA) 2012, organized by National Instruments (NI) which recognizes the most interesting applications using NI products in the field of Research.
Alekhya Datta, Mukesh Gujar, and Parimita Mohanty

TERI has developed first-of-its-kind Smart Mini-Grid (SMG) System in India, driven by state-of-art power electronics devices and controlled through ultra-fast digital technology based on National Instruments CompactRIO and LabVIEW which offers a higher degree of flexibility, reliability, efficiency and safety of complete power system.
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Others - 'Dissemination of project findings through other national / international platforms'

  • Presentation of our work and findings have been presented at the following forums:

    Clean Energy Interventions for Livelihood Generation

    • Presentation on the SMU and Solar microgrid at the Energy for All Investor Forum organised by ADB in Nepal, 6-8th February 2013
    • International Conference on Micro Energy Systems held at the Technical University of Berlin (27th February - March 1st 2013)
    • The SMU and Solar microgrid concepts have been used to train delegates at the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programmes organised by TERI on decentralised renewable energy.
    • Workshop on "Towards Universal Energy Access in Asia" in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on March 17-18, 2013 organized by UN Foundation
    • International training programme organized by ECREE (ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency) for ECOWAS states (2013). High level delegates from Ministries of 15 West African Countries were participated in the training workshop.
    • Capacity building workshops organized by UNIDO (in Ethiopia and Tanzania) on Sustainable Energy and Carbon Finance: Accelerating market transformation in East Africa (2013)
      • Presentation

    • Showcase at the 4th Clean Energy Ministerial, New Delhi, April 17-18th
      posterposter

  • Odisha SMU Case Study - Patapolasahi: ' Members from the Healing Heritage Farmer's Association, displayed their herbal medical products, now being produced using the SMU installed in Patapolasahi, Cuttack District, Odisha, at the Green Haat event organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forests at Dilli Haat, between 16th January and 31st January 2013'.
    Read more

  • Smart Controller Lab: The Smart Controller Laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility for design and development of innovative, cost-effective, smart and sustainable distributed power solutions. This laboratory is located in TERI's Gual Pahari Campus and supported by the Norwegian Framework Agreement Project. For more information, kindly refer to the brochure of the laboratory.

      Officials from the following organisations have also visited the Smart Controller Lab:
    1. Officials from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
    2. Secretary to the Ministry of Urban Development - Secretary
    3. UKAID
    4. Asian Development Bank
    5. NEC Labs, USA
    Smart Controller Lab Poster
    Smart Controller Lab Brochure
    Smart Controller Laboratory Compendium

For more details on the project and opportunities for collaboration on clean energy system for rural areas please contact : Ms Parimita Mohanty


Climate Change

Climate Change

The Climate Change theme is covered over three key Activities. Activities 2(a) and 2(b) involve understanding and filling critical knowledge gaps in the extent and timing of climate change effects and designing and implementing NAMAs and REDD Plus respectively. Activity 2(c) revolves around garnering the efforts of businesses and industries in addressing climate concerns and conserving the environment.


Climate Change: Impact assessment of climate change including climate change, process and earth system modelling

Climate Change Activity 2(a)

Impact assessment of climate change including climate change, process and earth system modelling

Background

India is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its diversified socio-economic profile and heterogeneous climatic regions. To address these vulnerabilities and adapt effectively to their impact, it is necessary to build institutional capabilities for climate change projections, both at global and regional scales and quantify sectoral impact assessment for important sectors like agriculture, water resources, and health. The existing state-of-the-art general circulation models are yet to be fine-tuned to address the complexities of Indian summer monsoon before they can be used for reliable monsoon predictions, climate change projections, and regional impact assessment studies. A successful development policy can be formulated only if the uncertainties in impact assessments are minimized, or at least quantified.

Objectives

  • To strengthen global and regional climate modelling capabilities at TERI by using an Earth System Model (ESM) and RCMs, to fulfil the objectives of the NAPCC and TERI’s own vision on climate modelling and through this to research climate impacts on the Indian sub continent.

Expected Outcomes

  • Institutional capacity building on Earth system model and regional climate model leading to reliable impact assessments.
  • To meet knowledge gaps and enhance understanding on climate change processes and its interactions using state-of-art Earth System models.
Developing country participation in addressing climate change. Analysing issues and options for implementing NAMAs and other mechanisms(REDD Plus)

Climate Change Activity 2(b)

Developing country participation in addressing climate change. Analysing issues and options for implementing NAMAs and other mechanisms(REDD Plus)

Background

NAMAs

To implement the Reduce Emission from Deforestation and Degradation mechanism (REDD Plus) and presented the assessment at COP 15 of the UNFCCC at Copenhagen in 2009 (http://www.teriin.org/events/CoP15/Forests.pdf). The present research project is part of TERI's continuing effort to assess and design a REDD-plus pilot project in Analyzing issues and options for implementing NAMAs.

The NFA project, ‘Analyzing issues and options for implementing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs)’ , is an international collaborative attempt in which we partner with Vitae Civilis (Brazil), University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Tshingua University (China). The project aims to identify constituent elements of NAMAs, define country-specific “appropriateness”, and assess the capacity requirements of developing countries for effective implementation of NAMAs—in short, to enable a clearer understanding of the concepts and issues surrounding NAMAs. The key outcome of this study will be a set of objective criteria to clearly define “appropriateness”, which is expected to guide the choice of NAMAs based on the individual country context.

The results of the project will be disseminated through a working paper and a book, which will consolidate the research findings. In addition, the project also supports a quarterly newsletter (three issues of which have been published) to facilitate dissemination and exchange of ideas.

The project seeks to thoroughly engage stakeholders in the process of developing the required criteria defining appropriateness. To gain from stakeholders’ experience and input, a workshop was organized in August 2011, which was attended by several national and international policymakers and researchers, as well as representatives from our partner institutions and dignitaries from the project sponsor, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The workshop witnessed various fruitful sessions with the participants who brought to the table and highlighted key issues and various dimensions of the architecture of NAMAs. In addition, a short survey was also administered to the participants to elicit their responses to identify the socio-economic criteria for evaluation of potential mitigation actions, and the desired characteristics of NAMAs.

The project was also showcased at the CoP 17 (Durban), Dec 2011, at the side-event organized jointly by TERI, ERC (Energy Research Centre) of the University of Cape Town and Tsinghua University. The side event focused on bringing the BASIC country perspectives on an international mechanism for NAMAs and analysis of its linkages at the national level. The progress made in various countries and the gaps remaining were identified and discussed upon.

REDD Plus

The Forestry and Biodiversity group at TERI had earlier carried out a preliminary assessment of India's readiness India. The specific objectives of the project are: (a) To analyze the international architecture for REDD-plus, (b) To study the potential impacts and response options for REDD-plus in India, and (c) To undertake a comprehensive assessment for designing a REDD-plus pilot project in India.

As a learning event, a meeting of the Asia REDD+ Working Group (ARWG) was organized by the Forestry and Biodiversity Group, TERI, New Delhi, and Community Forestry International, USA during Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2011 at TERI University, New Delhi. This meeting brought together the representatives of REDD+ projects being implemented in India, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines in order to provide a regional overview of the emerging learning and experience. The project would next hold a stakeholder consultation and meeting in April 2012 to deliberate on the draft paper based on the analysis of the developing global REDD-plus architecture.

Objectives

  • To research developing country participation in addressing climate change with a specific focus on analyzing issues and options for implementing NAMAs and REDD Plus

Expected Outcomes

It is expected that the proposed criteria will be utilised to spread the idea of appropriateness in developing countries and bring home the fact that undertaking actions that are country specific will ensure effective mitigation actions in developing countries. It is also expected that it will help to address the north south divide by clearly identifying the areas of cooperation relevant for developing countries. It is hoped that the study will provide a new approach to undertake assessment of developing country needs that can help undertake actions that are effective to tackle climate change and are achievable. The application of this approach will help in identification of priority NAMAs that are specific to each country being studied. The process of policy design and implementation of REDD plus projects in India would be guided.



DSDS

Climate Change Activity 2(c)
Catalyzing business action on climate change

Background

Given the announcement of the National Action Plan on Climate Change, it is now vital to involve business in operationalising it. As Indian industry rapidly assumes global relevance and proportions, its leadership needs to attain a higher level of consciousness in order to achieve its responsibilities towards a cleaner environment and the climate change concern. This can be accomplished through a combination of long-term strategic thinking in the context of environmental challenges, emphasis on research and development, and a re-alignment of business focus.

TERI–BCSD* member CEOs had proposed the initiation of a project that can draw upon the collaboration and expertise of leading researchers and practitioners who make a substantial contribution to the discourse of sustainable development in India and internationally. The proposed project is a response to a felt need from the business side and is expected to facilitate collaboration of Indian business with international organizations, including Norwegian enterprises, to develop new ideas and approaches to sustainable practices and action on climate change through learning by sharing methods. The overall goal of the project is to enhance the capability of the business sector to innovate by focusing on research based activities and innovative dissemination/engagement programs.

*For the past several years, TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) has been addressing issues related to sustainable development with the Indian industry. It set up TERI-BCSD (Business Council for Sustainable Development) currently a network of over 100 motivated and environmentally conscious corporates . TERI-BCSD is the Indian partner of the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development), Geneva. It is now a pre-eminent business voice on sustainable development issues, a constructive contributor to solutions and a trusted partner of other organizations.

Objectives

  • To raise the profile of sustainable development in India in business and the broader community including capacity building initiatives
  • To enhance the business sustainability interface on international, including Norwegian, and Indian business sector’s engagement towards action on climate change
  • To develop innovative programmes to sensitize and engage business leaders to foster the discourse of sustainable development in India

Expected Outcomes

  • Under Research studies on business opportunities:
    • Greening the ICT Industry and on ICT Application & Services towards environment sustainability:
      • Focused Approach towards industry intervention for greening the ICT Industry and on ICT Application & Services towards environment sustainability.
      • Engage with key state and central government departments towards policy change
      • Policy Inputs while showcasing Industry good practices and recommendations for way forward towards corporate action plan on climate change - role of ICT
  • Under Capacity Building Programs, Seminars & Events
    • Sensitization of industry on efficient water management in business planning through interactive learning / discussion forum
    • Corporate awareness and capacity building for business to conduct and govern themselves with ethics, accountability and transparency through sustainability reporting
    • Learning by sharing through best practices


Publications/Events/Others

DSDS

Climate Change and Energy Security

In view of the close interaction between energy and climate change, it is important for India to not only transition to more sustainable pathways, but also to have a coherent view of the evolving trade and climate regimes as they relate to energy and energy technologies. In cognizant with this, the Climate Change and Energy Security theme is based on two key Activities.

Activity 3(a) aims to study and develop strategies to address the energy challenges faced by India and the linkages that the energy challenge has with climate change and water.

Activity 3(b) deals with IPR regimes that govern access to technology at regional and global levels and examining carbon constraints as factors that determine trade regimes which will influence the generation of income and wealth by countries and people.


DSDS

Climate Change & Energy Security Activity 3(a)
Transitioning India towards sustainable energy pathways

DSDS

Climate Change & Energy Security Activity 3(b)
Analyzing IPR Regimes, Trade Issues, and Energy Governance Structure