NIAS-MECS Workshop
on
“Evidence-based Approach to Assess the Energy Transition in the
Residential Cooking Sector March
14, 2023″
An interactive brainstorming workshop on the theme “Evidence-based Approach to Assess the Energy Transition in the Residential Cooking Sector in India” was conducted at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), IISc campus, Bengaluru on 14 March 2023 with a specific focus on the electric cooking.
The workshop was organized under the patronage of Finovista, In-country partner of the MECS programme (Loughborough University, UK) in India and NIAS in partnership with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (O/o PSA) to the Government of India.
The workshop was conducted in the hybrid mode. Senior faculty members from NIAS including Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Director, NIAS, Prof. A.V. Krishnan, Dr. Raja Ramanna Chair Professor, and Dr. Anshuman Behera, Associate Professor attended the workshop which was coordinated and moderated by Dr. Rudrodip Majumdar, Assistant Professor, NIAS. The MECS team that attended workshop in-person comprised Dr. Nick Rousseau, International Liaison Manager, MECS Programme, Smt. Sheetal Rastogi and Shri Vimal Kumar, the Co-founders of Finovista. Representative from the Strategic Alliance Division in the O/o the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India also attended the meeting in-person. Amongst the other notable in-person attendees were Mr. Girja Shankar, General Manager -Technical, EESL, and Mr. K.G. George, Senior Vice President, TTK Prestige Ltd. Amongst the eminent invitees attending the workshop in the virtual mode were Shri S Suresh Kumar, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Power Department, West Bengal, Shri Soumya Garnaik – Green Investment Specialist, GGGI, Shri Anil Desai – Proprietor, Flame O Nil Technologies, Prof. Jayendran Venkateswaran – Institute Chair Professor, IIT Bombay, Prof. Debajit Palit – Professor, NTPC School of Business, Mr. Anjan Mitra, Senior Manager, CESC Ltd., and Shri K.K. Sinha (Ex-Industrial Adviser, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GoI and currently Adviser, Finovista).
Dr. Ed Brown, Director, MECS Programme, Prof. Matt Leach, Dr. Simon Batchelor, Dr. Richard Sieff, and Mr. Florian Postel joined online from UK.
Initiated the discussion, Dr. Nick Rousseau welcomed the participation of NIAS in the workshop since there is an urgent need to develop an integrated view that stitches the access of energy and electric cooking together.
Shri Girja Shankar highlighted the need to overcome the technological challenges if the country wishes to adopt solar energy-based electric cooking which relies on the direct current heating. He also highlighted the importance to look at the cost aspects in this regard. Shri Shankar conveyed that EESL is open regarding the choice of technological option in the context of the large-scale adoption of e-cooking appliances.
Shri Soumya Garnaik mentioned that the acceptability or readiness of the consumers to switch from a convenient and comfortable household cooking option (use of LPG burners) to electric-based cooking is a challenge. Shri Garnaik highlighted the need for domestic manufacturing preparedness in order to make the transition to e-cooking a success.
Prof. Debajit Palit also agreed with Shri Garnaik’s observations regarding the reluctance shown by end-users towards switching to a new cooking option.
Prof. Jayendran Venkateswaran of IIT Bombay opined that the scaling-up is a key challenge and we may need to look for customized solutions based on the consumer segment and geographical region in line with the regional food habits.
Dr. Anshuman Behera mentioned that in India the possession of e-cooking devices is seen as a status symbol. To make the adoption of e-cooking a success, he felt that we should look for the contribution of e-cooking devices towards social mobility and enhancement of capabilities at an individual level.
Shri Anil Desai commented that the e-cooking devices and the vessels should be made available in the local markets, and simultaneously repairing and servicing should also be available.
Prof. Matt Leach discussed the importance of built-in IOT devices for monitoring the real-time usage of e-cooking devices for the calculation of carbon credit. He also opined that discussion with Ministry of Finance may be useful to look at the cost-benefits of the transition to clean cooking.
Mr. Vimal Kumar indicated that the Research and Development phase for the e-cooking devices is by and large over.
Mr. Kumar opined that the current requirement is innovation in terms of design and architecture, business models and incentives for the technology promotion.
Shri Anjan Mitra suggested that to create the awareness regarding the e-cooking, the outreach efforts made by the DISCOMS alone are not enough. A collective effort is needed supported by the Government, NGOs, and various Social Bodies.
Representative from O/o PSA highlighted that there are societal/ behavioral, technological, financial, infrastructural, and policy-level challenges ahead which must be overcome in order to make the large-scale adoption of e-cooking devices a success.
In his concluding remarks, Dr. Shailesh Nayak stated that there are three key aspects that should be remembered while evaluating any major transition in the country. First, knowledge about the system-level benefits in the long-term as well as short-term is important and knowledge gaps need to be filled in. Secondly, clarity is needed regarding what should be the response of the industry and the Government. Finally, the community response is crucial since it will be dependent on the individual perspectives and value systems. We must analyze how much of community response can be impacted by the awareness programmes. While doing the same, both large and small communities are to be considered to have assessments at different scales.
The friendly debate and engaging discussions resulted in a lot of insights and innovative ideas which are expected to help in devising effective strategies towards promoting the large-scale adoption of electric cooking appliances for residential cooking in India.