Great Transition To Renewable Energy

Setting a bold example for India’s thermal power industry, Tata Power is surging ahead in its energy transition to renewable energy sources of power. It has a target to increase the share of clean energy to a majority 50-60 per cent of the generation portfolio by 2025 against 31 per cent today that includes renewable generation, solar rooftops, EV charging infrastructure, home automation and microgrids. 

The company has also set a target to attain carbon neutrality by 2050. This also includes an aspirational pledge by the company to not pursue greenfield or brownfield projects in the thermal power sector, and instead, increase its renewable energy capacity to include wind and hydropower. There is tremendous ongoing innovation in the company. 

One such example is the new subsidiary, TP Renewable Microgrid, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation to become the world’s largest microgrid developer and operator. In collaboration with AES and Mitsubishi Corporation, Tata Power has set out to power up 10MWh South Asia’s largest grid-scale battery energy storage system in India. Other innovations include their advance metering infrastructure and the installation of smart meters in Radio Frequency (Mesh) network by Tata Power DDL. The company uses drones and image analytics for conducting assessments on coal piles and uses thermal imaging for their PV farms and open switchyards. Improved energy efficiency in operations has resulted in reduced CO2 emissions intensity. So much so that the company reported a less than 10 per cent loss in transmission and distribution losses in the areas where Tata Power DDL operates. This percentage is half of what is reported by state power utilities. The company has also exceeded the FY19 target of 15 per cent T&D losses set by the Government of India under the UDAY scheme. 

Gender Parity 

Employee wellbeing is another category where the company stands out. While the industry average for the percentage of women amongst all employees is a despondent 6 per cent, Tata Power has 20 per cent women on its board, 5 per cent women in senior management, and 11 per cent women employees in total.

There was quite a bit of great news in the women to men salary ratio: 1:1.02 at senior management level, 1:0.91 at middle management level (i.e.women earning more than men) and 1:1.11 at junior management level. The company scored better than others across all industries on this parameter. Tata Power’s industry-leading performance towards employee wellbeing includes good employee health and safety (HSE) policies as well. 

In the power sector, fatalities at work were found to be common, Tata Power reported a figure of zero fatalities in the year. Adding to the company’s excellence in maintaining parity across the workforce, is its CEO to average worker salary ratio. At 33 times, the CEO to average worker salary ratio at Tata Power is lower than all private companies in the power sector and lower than the industry average of 54.84 times.