Tata Power, IIT Delhi to collaborate in clean energy space

Tata Power on Saturday said it has inked a pact with IIT Delhi to work together on clean energy and other projects that can be transformed from research and development level to pilot stage.

Tata Power, one of India's largest private sector integrated utilities, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate in areas like smart grid technology, clean energy solutions, a company statement said.

Considering the large number of experts with their excellence in different fields in IIT Delhi and Tata Power, there is an immense potential to collaborate between academia, research and domain experts from business with a high transformational impact, it added.

Both the institutions have agreed to work together to identify projects that can be transformed from R&D stage to pilot projects and scaling in areas such as EV infrastructure, artificial intelligence, machine learning, hydrogen technologies, battery energy storage systems, monitoring and sensing solutions, microgrids et al.

Speaking of the collaboration, V Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi, said in the statement, "IIT Delhi, a leading research institution in the country, is pleased to sign this MoU with Tata Power. I am hopeful this collaboration will result in the development of new technologies for the energy sector, which would prove helpful in area of power generation and distribution."

Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power, said, "At Tata Power, our focus has always been around bringing ground-breaking and sustainable technologies in the power sector.

"We are glad to partner with IIT Delhi, an Institution of Eminence.

"We are confident that this collaboration will create a test bed for new age implementable technologies in the energy space leading to strengthening of clean energy ecosystem in the country."

In the last few years, Tata Power has fostered a culture of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship within the organisation for its employees to design, develop and deliver unique energy products, services and solutions.

Tata Power and IIT-D have also agreed to explore a possibility to develop Tata Power Virtual Centre of Excellence towards complementing and supplementing various technologies, labs and infrastructure already ingrain at each other's facilities.

Under this MoU, both the parties also wish to explore the synergies through cooperation with Clean Energy International Incubation Centre (CEIIC) and IIT Delhi's Startup infrastructure for incubation and development of startups.

CEIIC, is supported by Social Alpha, Tata Trusts and the Government of India through Department of Biotechnology, BIRAC, Tata Power and Tata Power – Delhi Distribution Limited.

Till date, Tata Power through its Collaboration, Innovation and R&D division has collaborated with more than 100 national and international technology and institution partners, to develop low cost, scalable solutions in the clean energy space.

Photograph: PTI Photo