Govt considering subsidy for e-vehicle charging infrastructure, says A K Bhalla

Power Secretary A K Bhalla today said the government is considering providing subsidy for encouraging setting up of e-vehicle charging infrastructure under a policy, to be unveiled in coming days.

Bhalla was of the view that it is a chicken and egg story because charging stations would not be set up without enough e-vehicles and e-vehicles sales would not pick up unless there is enough facility to charge these vehicles.

"We are bringing a policy in consultation with heavy industries ministry that how these chargers can be established. Whether we need to support that with subsidy to begin with," he said speaking at the launch of "#InnovateToINSPIRE: Creating Future Energy Solutions" by the World Bank, World Resources Institute (WRI), and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

He further said, "E-mobility is an area where government has been working. We have clarified that for (setting up) charging infra does not need a licence as it is service oriented activity. In draft tariff policy, we have put certain policy statement for encouraging power supply to these charging stations. We have notified technical standards for charging infrastructure."

Talking about UJALA scheme, he said it has led to huge savings as against the target to distribute 77 crore LED bulbs, 118 crore have already been distributed.

Bhalla expressed concerns over increasing gap between energy requirement and supply in view of more and more induction of renewables like wind and solar in the system.

He said, "The gap is increasing and it is a big challenge. We are setting up renewable energy management centres. We have sanctioned 11 such centres. We are heading much ahead of time of our target of generation installed capacity of more than 40 per cent from non-fossil fuels. We will definitely be achieving this ahead of 2030 deadline."

The 'innovate to inspire' challenge is open to participants across the world and aims to address specific issues inhibiting grid stability and adoption of e-mobility, while also endeavouring to expand the markets and applications for energy efficiency interventions across India.

The registration and application submissions for the challenge are open to participants from August 21 to October 12, 2018.

The challenge invites participants to submit sustainable and scalable solutions to seven specific challenges spanning grid management, e-mobility, energy efficiency and energy market transformation.

These challenges include development of weather and wind forecasting tools to assist renewable energy generation, economically-viable energy storage systems, devices for minimising standby energy losses, business models for driving energy efficiency in cold storage, cheaper and higher-range electric vehicles than those currently available in market, financial instruments for sustainable funding and securitising energy-related innovations.