IPPAI announces the 17th edition of the Regulators and Policymakers Retreat

Independent Power Producers Association of India (IPPAI) has announced the 17^th edition of its flagship event Regulators and Policymakers Retreat (RPR 2016), to be held at The Lalit Golf and Spa Resort in Goa from September 22-25, 2016. Top policymakers and regulators from the power and allied sectors from across the country will participate in the event.

IPPAI in a statement said RPR 2016 is aimed to trigger out-of-the-box thinking by interspersing the intellectual and the esoteric with the day-to-day issues of the power sector to provoke thoughts and bring out creativity in the minds of policymakers and regulators.

The event supported by Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission is a platform for engaging with cerebral persons in the industry and across sectors.

The event spanning 3.5 days will include 10 sessions, 75 + speakers, 1 masterclass, 300 + participants, and 25 + awards.

The theme of RPR 2016 is “India – Meeting the Aspirations?” The event looks at the aspirations of young Indians keeping in mind the ways of improving their living standards by benchmarking it to the western narrative of development. IPPAI notes that the retreat will go to the roots and examine the relevance, efficacy and practicability of the western developmental model in the Indian context.

Key topics of debates and deliberations for this year’s RPR include: Meeting the aspirations –  Infinite desires and finite resources; coal and power surplus – what stops Indian consumers from getting 24x7 power?; transmission challenges and the way forward; smart India –  smart energy, smart water, smart transportation, smart security; civil nuclear liability – impact on fresh investments, development and mainstreaming of nuclear power; the roadmap and the challenges for solar and wind; and environment: India to meet the energy demands of 1.25 billion people through a low carbon trajectory/strategy?

Some of the eminent participants confirmed so far are:

Government:

• Ajay Jain, Secretary (Energy), Govt. of Andhra Pradesh
• Ajoy Mehta, Municipal Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
• Anil Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Govt. of India
• Arun Goyal, Addl Secretary, Project Monitoring Group, Prime Minister’s Office
• Kumar Sanjay Krishna, Addl Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Agriculture

Regulators:

• Anand Kumar, Chairman, Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission
• Damitha Kumarasinghe, DG, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka
• DS Bains, Chairman, Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission
• Desh Deepak Verma, Chairman, Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Regulatory Commission
• KP Singh, Member, Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission

Participants will also get to attend a master class by the IPPAI Regulatory and Policy Research Institute. This session will lay special focus on the regulatory aspects of the power sector and the way forward.

The event will also see the launch of IPPAI’s knowledge document Powering India in 2017 and Beyond (published by Speaking Tiger Publishing), which sheds light on some of the key issues facing India’s power sector in particular and the energy sector in general.