On 9 and 10 December 2020, a 2- day webinar, and on 17 and 18 December another 2-day webinar on “Supply Chain Analysis and Optimisation” for off-grid energy projects were conducted by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA). The IREDA manages a credit line of 20 million EUR with an investment grant of 4 million EUR for financing “Access to Energy” projects from KfW. These webinars were conducted as a part of the accompanying measures grant for this credit line. Access to reliable and modern energy remains a challenge in rural India and approximately 100 million people are estimated to be without reliable access to electricity. The IREDA would deploy the loan through financing entrepreneurs to scale up their access to energy operations, e.g. using mini- and micro-grids, solar pumps or other access applications. Both workshops were organised for off-grid Renewable Energy (RE) sector organisations active in India and were attended by 30+ participants on each day.

The risk management workshop covered wide-ranging topics and was designed to provide advisory support to access energy organisations to help them in optimising their risks by following a streamlined process starting from risk identification to risk assessment & prioritisation and finally to risk mitigation in their business operations. The webinar was conducted by PwC in partnership with Mr. William Greene, Senior Advisor at Multiconsult Norge AS – a multidisciplinary, limited engineering consultancy firm headquartered in Norway focused on energy, environment and natural resources, industry, etc. and Dr. Kjetil Roine, Partner/Co-Founder at Differ AS. Some key financial risks discussed during the session include cost forecasting, technology selection and design, tariff risk, financial planning and modelling risk, project bank-ability, etc. The Experts also discussed the most pronounced technical risks including grid arrival, workforce unrest, environmental & social risks and regulatory & policy risks. The experts also discussed the principles for risk management and operational challenges.

The “Supply Chain Analysis and Optimisation” webinar was designed to provide advisory support to such organisations to identify the present status of the supply chain in the access to the energy sector, highlight challenges and suggest strategic measures to ensure sustainable, robust and cost-effective supply chain processes with a focus on business expansion for sub-borrowers and energy security enhancement for customers. The webinar was conducted by PwC in partnership with Mr. Mark Simmons and Mr. Michel Battikh, Senior Advisors at Multiconsult Norge AS. Some key topics covered included raw material requirement and sourcing, logistics chain, supply chain analysis and strategy, supplier evaluation and selection. The adequate focus was also given on developing contract frameworks to effectively prepare & lead negotiations, inventory planning & management and developing performance management systems.