Benefits of sponsorship (Virtual Conference)

• E-Meet influencers and decision-makers
• Reach out to and engage with new or active prospects
• Generate high quality sales leads
• Increase brand recognition
• Target a captive and engaged audience
• Drive website traffic through social media promotions
• Position your company as the thought-leader in your industry

For sponsorship , please contact:

Ishan Arora
Email: ishan.arora@indiainfrastructure.com
Mobile: +91-9582971760

For registration and sponsorship opportunities contact:
Ishan Arora
Email: ishan.arora@indiainfrastructure.com
Mobile: +91-9582971760

• Power distribution is one of the key focus areas of government reforms and rightly so.
• The government, in June 2021, launched its largest ever scheme in the power sector – the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) – with an outlay of over Rs 3.04 trillion. Like earlier schemes launched over the past decades to revive the ailing discoms, RDSSalso seeks to improve the operational efficiency and ensure the financial viability of the state discoms. With facilitative mechanisms and conditional funding support, the new scheme provides discoms yet another opportunity to turn the corner, but as always on-the-ground implementation will hold the key to its success.
• Notably, the financial performance of discoms sawsome improvement in 2019-20 with annual losses (on a subsidy received basis) declining by 36 per cent to Rs 393 billionfrom Rs 614 billion in the previous year.Meanwhile, the AT&C losses declined marginally to 21.16 per cent from 21.85 per cent during the same period,varying widely across states. However, the financial losses are expected to increase substantially in 2020-21 owing to revenue shortfall due to a dip in demand in the C&I segment following the lockdown, inadequate tariff revisions and increase in interest cost. The RDSS aims toreduce the AT&C losses to 12-15 per cent andthe ACS-ARR gap to zeroby 2024-25.
• Steps are also being taken to bring in customer centricity to distribution operations. To this end, the power ministry has notified the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules, 2020 laying down the minimum standards of service for power supply to consumers across the country. Meanwhile, the government’s initiative to privatise distribution operations in union territories is progressing at a slower pace than expected owing to legal challenges, but the private sector’s interest remains strong.
• On the technology front, smart metering has the potential to cut AT&C losses. A few discoms have already implemented successful smart metering projects, but many others are yet to follow suit. Digitalisation  efforts are also gaining momentum among discoms, driven to some extent by the Covid-19 pandemic, theevolving load profile and growth in distributed generation. Some promising technologies are remote monitoring, advanced distribution management system, IoT/AI/ML- enabled asset management and load forecasting, big data analytics and blockchain-based P2P trading. On the network side, discoms are likely to invest in system strengthening works such as underground/aerial bunched cabling, HVDS, reconductoring, feeder segregation and substation capacity augmentation.
• Net, net, the distribution segment is likely to witness a major shift in the coming years with an expected increase in private participation, greater technology adoption, and growth in network infrastructure, thereby benefitting consumers and discoms alike.
• The mission of the conference is to focus on the key trends and developments in the distribution segment, analyse the impact of key government programmes, and highlight best practices as well as the new initiatives being taken by discoms. It will also provide an update on promising automation technologies, examine the various issues and challenges and provide an outlook on future growth areas.

KEY TRENDS AND OUTLOOK

• What have been the key trends in the power distribution segment?
• How has been the operational and financial performance of discoms?
• What are the opportunities and threats for the segment going forward?

GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVE

• What are the government’s views on the current state of the distribution segment?
• What is the update on the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme as well as UT privatisation efforts? What are the expected outcomes?
• What are the government’s key focus areas for the segment going forward?

DISCOMS’ PERSPECTIVE

• Special sessions with senior officials of six to eightleading public and privatediscoms discussing
• Key initiatives and achievements
• Future focus areas and targets
• Capex plans

PRIVATE SECTOR EXPERIENCE AND OPPORTUNITIES

• How has been the experience of private discoms and distribution franchisees?
• What are the opportunities for private sector participation in the segment in the near future?

REGULATORS’ PERSPECTIVE

• What is the perspective of regulators on the power distribution segment?
• What are the key issues and areas of concern for regulators?
• What is the  outlook for the segment?

 SMART METERING: POTENTIAL AND PROGRESS

• What are the growth drivers of smart metering? What has been the progress made by utilities?
• What are the implementation challenges?
• What are the expected targets, investments and timelines for smartmetering by utilities?

OUTLOOK ON FINANCES, COSTS AND TARIFFS

• What is current state of discom finances and what is the future outlook?
• What has been the trend in the power purchase cost and tariff revisions of discoms?
• What would be discoms’ power procurement strategy going forward?

NSGM AND SMART GRID UPDATE

• What have been the key results and takeaways from completed pilot projects?
• What has been the progress on smart grid projects under the NSGM?
• What are the new technologies being adopted? What are the next steps?

GOING DIGITAL: FOCUS ON AI, ML AND BLOCKCHAIN

• What are the key usecases of new technologies such as AI, ML and blockchain?
• What are the issues and concerns related to these technologies?
• What strategies need to be adopted by utilities to deploy AI and ML?

DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATION

• What are the key distribution automation technologies adopted by utilities and what are their benefits?
• What are some of the upcomingtechnologies for outage management, asset and load management, etc.?
• What are the key focus areas of utilities with respect to automation?

GROWING ROLE OF IT-OT

• What are the key IT and OT trends in power distribution?
• What are the new and emerging utility requirements?
• What are some of the most relevant and promising IT-OT technologies?

FOCUS ON POWER QUALITY

• What are the key issues and challenges related to power quality?
• What are the best practices being followed for improving power quality?
• What are the promising technologies and solutions in this regard?

ENHANCING CONSUMER SERVICES

• What are key measures by discoms to enhance consumer services?
• What are some of the new technologies and solutions being adopted in this regard?

 AT&C LOSS REDUCTION

• What steps are being taken by utilities to reduce AT&C losses?
• What are the best practices being followed for revenue management?
• What are some of the novel approaches for loss reduction?

CYBERSECURITY

• What are the key cybersecurity-related risks and concerns of utilities?
• What initiatives are being planned for strengthening cybersecurity?
• What are some of the emerging technologies and solutions in this regard?

The conference will draw participation from:

• Government & policy makers
• State discoms
• Private discoms
• Distribution franchises
• Equipment manufacturers
• Technology providers
• Regulators
• IT-based product and service providers
• Marketers of enterprise software solutions
• Communication/connectivity solution providers
• Financial institutions
• Meter manufacturers
• EPC Contractors
• R&D Organisations
• Sector Consultants
• Cyber Security Solution Providers, Etc.

Delegate benefits (Virtual Conference)

• Direct interaction with senior speakers (Q&A facility)
• Easy connectivity to geographically dispersed delegates (click of a mouse)
• Concise report offered as a backgrounder
• Cost effective (lower ticket price as compared to a physical conference)
• Offers flexibility and convenience
• Access to conference recording
• Recap of conference sessions
• Contributes to sustainability and lower carbon footprint

Both conferences

For registration process/payment to attend any one conference, please contact:

For registration and sponsorship opportunities contact:
Ishan Arora
Email: ishan.arora@indiainfrastructure.com
Mobile: +91-9582971760

• GST @18 per cent is applicable on the registration fee.
• Registration will be confirmed on receipt of the payment.