Prayas (Energy Group)

Prayas (Energy Group) is an Indian analysis and advocacy organisation working in the area of energy policy. It is part of a non-governmental charitable trust called Prayas (long name is Initiatives in Health, Energy and Parenthood) located in Pune, India. The aim of Prayas is to make energy a tool for sustainable and equitable development for all citizens, by analysis, discourse building, policy and regulatory engagements and collaboration with other civil society organisations.[1]

Prayas
FounderGirish Sant
TypeNon-governmental organization
Location
Websitewww.prayaspune.org/peg

History

Prayas was founded in 1994 by three professionals - two doctors and an engineer – with the aim of using professional skills to promote public interest, including that of disadvantaged sections of the society and of the environment. Prayas has four groups working on different sectors - health, energy, resources & livelihoods, and learning & parenthood.[2][3]

Girish Sant, an energy systems engineer, was the founder coordinator of Prayas. After he died in 2012, Shantanu Dixit became the group coordinator. Prayas’s first activities were in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency. It later took up studies on the socioeconomic impacts of projects such as Dabhol Power Station promoted by Enron.[4][5][6][7] With the advent of reforms in the Indian electricity sector, Prayas published reports on electricity and related energy sectors.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Areas of Work
The PEG team, 2017


Prayas works on governance, regulation and policy related aspects of electricity and energy sectors.[17] There are four major areas of work, namely: Electricity generation & supply, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy and Energy, resources & development.[18] It covers many Indian states[19][20] and national issues.[21][22][23] There are also a few international initiatives, undertaken with collaboration with other organisations. These include analysis of Bujagali hydro power project in Uganda,[24][25] Electricity Governance Initiative[26] and Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative.[27][28][29]

Outputs

Work outputs of Prayas include reports, guides and regulatory or policy submissions, all of which are available on its website.[17] Some major outputs are, Analysis of Enron-Dabhol power project,[5][7] Survey of Electricity Regulatory Commissions, Primer on Electricity, Solar Roof-Top Photovoltaics (PV) in India, Activist Guide for better electricity service, Challenges before the Indian Coal Sector and Energy Requirement for decent living. Prayas's outputs include newspaper articles on topics like Solar Options for Agriculture, Energy Efficiency and Clean Cooking Challenges. There are also presentations/interviews on topics like India energy challenges, Energy policy, and Indian energy sector trends.[30]

Prayas is a member of several official committees at the Central and State levels[19][20][21] and has been knowledge partner to Central Government institutions such as NITI Aayog.[22][23] Various commentators and reviewers have noted that the work of Prayas has contributed to improving governance and policy in the energy sector.[31][32][33][34]

References
  1. "Prayas Website". Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  2. Ho, Wenny (2007). "Chapter 8, The case of Prayas". Sense-making in turbulent times : every-day strategic changing by Indian NGDOs. PHD. Thesis at Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).
  3. Dhavse, Rasika (November 2002). "Determined Efforts, Definite Direction". India Together. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  4. "Girish Sant-Always two steps ahead". Economic & Political Weekly. 47 (10). 10 March 2012.
  5. Sant, Girish; Dixit, Shantanu; Wagle, Subodh (17 June 1995). "Dabhol Project PPA-Structure and Techno-economic implications". Economic & Political Weekly. 30 (24).
  6. Purkayastha, Prabir (17 February – 2 March 2001). "A disastrous deal". Frontline. 18 (4).
  7. Prayas Energy Group (18 June 2005). "Restarting Dabhol". Economic & Political Weekly. 40 (25).
  8. Sant, Girish; Dixit, Shantanu (12 April 1997). "How Reliable are Agricultural Power Use Data?". Economic & Political Weekly. 32 (15).
  9. Sant, Girish; Dixit, Shantanu; Wagle, Subodh (25 April 1998). "WB-Orissa Model of Power Sector Reform-Cure Worse than Disease". Economic & Political Weekly. 33 (17).
  10. Josey, Ann; N, Sreekumar (10 October 2015). "Is Anything Being Learnt from Past Programmes? Power for All". Economic & Political Weekly. 50 (41).
  11. Chitnis, Ashwini; Josey, Ann; Dixit, Shantanu (22 December 2012). "Bailing Out Unaccountability". Economic & Political Weekly. 47 (51).
  12. Singh, Daljit; Chunekar, Aditya; Sant, Girish (2012). "Improving energy efficiency in India: need for a targeted and tailored strategy". Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment. WIREs Energy Environ 2012. 1 (3): 298–307. doi:10.1002/wene.45.
  13. Sreenivas, Ashok; Sant, Girish (25 July 2009). "Shortcomings in Governance of Natural Gas Sector". Economic & Political Weekly. 44 (30).
  14. Gambhir, Ashwin; Sant, Girish; Deshmukh, Ranjit (20 March 2010). "Need to Realign India's National Solar Mission". Economic & Political Weekly. 45 (12).
  15. Khosla, Radhika; Dukkipati, Srihari; K Dubash, Navroz; Sreenivas, Ashok; Cohen, Brett (5 December 2015). "Towards Methodologies for Multiple Objective-Based Energy and Climate Policy". Economic & Political Weekly. 50 (49).
  16. Dabadge, Ashwini; Josey, Ann; Sreenivas, Ashok (16 April 2016). "Realising smokeless kitchens for all: From LPG connections to use". Economic & Political Weekly. 51 (16).
  17. "Prayas (Energy Group) – About us". Prayas (Energy Group) Website.
  18. "Prayas (Energy Group) – Research Areas". Prayas (Energy Group) Website.
  19. "Regulation of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission on State Advisory Committee" (PDF). MERC. 30 December 2010.
  20. "Telangana Electricity Regulatory Commission – Constitution of State Advisory Committee" (PDF). TSERC. 9 February 2015.
  21. "Notification of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission on Central Advisory Committee" (PDF). CERC. 23 March 2016.
  22. "India Energy Security Scenarios – Stake holders, NITI Aayog". Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  23. "Planning Commission Launches India Energy Security Scenario 2047". Planning Commission. 1 March 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  24. "Independent Review Panel: Compliance review report of Bujagali hydro power and interconnection projects" (PDF). African Development Bank. 2008.
  25. Lilley, Sasha (28 August 2003). "AES Backs Out of Bujagali Dam Project". CorpWatch.
  26. "Empowering people: A governance analysis of electricity" (PDF). World Resources Institute. 2007.
  27. "Prayas-Electricity Supply Monitoring Initiative". www.watchyourpower.org. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  28. Martin, Sarah; Davidson, Dana (2016). "How open data can help electrify India — and the world". World Resources Institute.
  29. Sengupta, Debjoy (26 July 2016). "Contrary to government's claims, small towns, rural areas still suffer from power outages". Economic Times.
  30. D'Monte, Darryl (25 October 2009). "Need to strengthen climate diplomacy". India Together.
  31. Bakshi, Rajni (10 September 2000). "Tapping Consumer Power". The Hindu.
  32. Purkayastha, Prabir (June 2005). "Much more than a Primer-Book Review". Energy for Sustainable Development. 9 (2): 3–64. doi:10.1016/S0973-0826(08)60493-7.
  33. Dharmadhikary, Shripad (23 October 2004). "Citizens and Electricity". Economic & Political Weekly. 39 (43).
  34. Pradhan, Dharmendra, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas (6 May 2016). "Tweet on Prayas article on LPG connections to use". Twitter.
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