Industrial Automation Magazine India

The focus on electric mobility is gaining traction in India

Published on : Friday 03-06-2022

Mr Prashanth G V, Head – Tech & Smart Cities @ Innovation Centre Denmark, India

What is the present status of the Smart Cities Mission in India?
The biggest achievement of the Smart Cities Mission in India has been to galvanise efforts to implement solutions in a planned, phased manner keeping in mind present and future requirements of city development. The Smart Cities Mission’s greatest achievement is starting India's journey to develop solutions and get the ball rolling in terms of industry collaborations on various large scale projects involving better digitisation, waste management, sustainable urban development and improving liveability standards.
 
An example of successful collaborations as a Smart City with foreign entities is Pune, which includes:
a. The master planning of the Aundh-Baner-Balewadi smart city area with assistance from the UK’sForeign and Commonwealth Office,
 
b. The crafting and adoption of the city of Pune’s digital strategy 2020 (Smartnet 2018) with learnings from present and former city officials of cities like Tel Aviv (Israel) and Barcelona (Spain).
 
c. The launch of India’s first and largest listed municipal bonds program with advisory support from the United States Department of the Treasury, and
 
d. The on boarding of the city’s first Chief Resilience Officer under the 100 Resilient Cities program pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.       

Smart Cities Mission envisions developing an area within a city as a model area, which is expected to have a rub-off effect on the rest of the city. How realistic is this?
The aim of developing an area within a Smart City referred to as Area Based Development (ABD), or a model area, is much required for Indian cities. Such areas will act as ‘lighthouse areas’ to replicate models for good and sustainable solutions with better IT connectivity and digitalisation, e-Governance, sanitation, solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, affordable housing and more sustainable environment friendly solutions. In India, such ‘model areas’ can be seen in Coimbatore and Surat.
 
A Danish example that signifies harmony in achieving urban development and sustainable, green development is the capital city of Copenhagen, rated as the world’s best bike (bicycling) city in 2019, by wired.com. Another impressive feat is Copenhagen’s recent mega urban development project in Nordhavn neighbourhood, which is among the largest and most ambitious urban development projects in Northern Europe when it comes to sustainability. Greener streets, courtyard gardens, rich fauna and landscaped streets that carry the rain from heavy rainfall away and down to the adjacent harbour are some of the benefits for residents. The project serves as a concrete example of the way urban planning in Copenhagen combines climate solutions with recreational benefits for locals – not as a bonus or side-effect but as an integral part of the solution.
 
Sustainability is one the core tenets for Smart Cities. How sustainable are the Smart Cities nominated so far? Can our smart cities achieve a net zero emissions goal?
 

For Indian smart cities to be truly sustainable and achieve net-zero emissions, carbon emissions resulting from consumption of energy in five broad sectors – buildings, transport, provision of municipal services, infrastructure development and the use of products and services by residents – needs to be monitored intelligently and the infrastructure needs to be revamped for recycling energy usage.
 
Prominent examples include premises and buildings operated by some of the large realty and construction players making an effort to be carbon neutral in cities like Bangalore. From academia, more than 250 institutes have joined hands to make their institutes/campuses as carbon neutral. IIT-Delhi is the first central government funded technical institute to reduce its carbon footprint by more than 50%.
 
On the policy side, The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a jointly designed ‘Sustainable Cities India program’ which will aim for cities to generate decarbonisation solutions across energy, transport, and infrastructure sectors.
 
WEF and NIUA will adapt the Forum’s City Sprint process and Toolbox of Solutions for decarbonisation in the context of five to seven Indian cities across two years.
 
Can smart cities be powered by clean electricity through decentralised grids?
Smart cities can aim at generating a certain degree of clean electricity from decentralised grids. India is already taking steps in this direction with 14 pilot projects approved by the Ministry of Power. However, for decentralised grids to become a reality on a larger scale, we must understand that smart grid utilities require a variety of digital technologies such as analytics, monitoring of the distribution grid, intelligent systems, customer touch points and the upgrading of metering infrastructure. All of which requires resources and time. One of the basic infrastructure requirements is installation of smart meters, where India is aiming for installation of 250 million smart meters by 2025.
 
SMEs and corporates can explore the option of installing smart grid projects in premises or campuses, be it educational, special economic zones, or, industrial parks, etc.
 
Denmark started this journey around 2010. It is estimated that investments of around 1 billion Euro would be required till 2025 to expand and equip their grid intelligently.
 
How do the 100 cities nominated for the Smart City Mission fare in terms of Electric Mobility – not just passenger EVs but transport systems?
The focus on electric mobility is gaining traction in India with several smart cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Surat set to roll out around 5,000 electric buses for public transport in the coming months. Delhi has already inducted 300 electric buses for mass transportation earlier this year in January. The Indian Government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) Program has set aside a budget of Rs 10,000 crore, under Phase II, till 2024, to support 7000 e-buses and a composite basket of other e-vehicles for passenger use, in order to build demand.
 
In addition, The Government of India announced that it will provide up to Rs 1.05 billion (~$16.2 million) in grant funding to Smart Cities for the purchase of electric vehicles to be used for mass transportation under a pilot project run under the (FAME) program.

In terms of the Danish reference, the six largest municipalities in Denmark have decided to procure only electric city buses from 2021. The cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg, Vejle and Frederiksberg have signed the Climate Cooperation Agreement with the Danish Ministry of Transport, as part of a green push in urban transportation.
 
How realistic and achievable is the goal to achieve 100% plug-in electric vehicles by 2030?
Challenges exist in both the supply and implementation side. On the supply side, primary challenges involve securing adequate supply of lithium as India has low lithium reserves compared to the demand for EVs, while globally, there is an acute shortage of microchips, derailing ambitions for faster roll out of more EVs. On the implementation side, the plan to roll out more than 300,000 electric charging stations across India is required to realise this grand ambition.
 
In order to realise 100% plug-in vehicles in India, there is a cohesive requirement for supportive policies, incentives and tax breaks, private sector participation and focussing greater efforts to expedite research and development of viable alternatives to Lithium such as Sodium to represent our best chance of meeting this ambitious goal.
 
As a perspective of what can be achieved with an aggressive policy push and support of multiple stakeholders, Denmark currently has the most zero-emission urban buses on the roads in Europe, with electric buses making up 78% of its new vehicles, according to data from Transport and Environment (T&E), a green NGO. In May 2021, DanTaxi, a large taxi company in Denmark opened the largest e-taxi charging hub in the Nordics.
 
Is the present ranking of Smart Cities in India based on realistic parameters?
Seen from the Danish perspective the ranking parameters used in the Smart Cities Mission is realistic and unique to challenges that India faces. The urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with the mission of developing smart cities across the country, making them citizen friendly and sustainable, is much needed for improving liveability of cities. It is great to see solid waste treatment and green energy as pillars of smart city development goals, but the sustainability focus could have been amplified with a bigger emphasis on circular economy, greater promotion and inclusion of cycling tracks as part of our smart cities to truly make Indian Smart Cities more sustainable and green.
 
Over in Denmark, the capital city Copenhagen has ambitious goals to become the world's first carbon neutral capital by 2025. To achieve this ambitious goal Copenhagen is looking to switch to renewable energy sources, with the district heating system using more energy generated from waste-to-energy plants and cooling networks to be based mostly on seawater abstraction. Smart sewers and trash facilities, water management, real-time air quality monitoring, smart lighting and intelligent traffic signals based on analysis of real-time data will make the city more smart and sustainable.
 
Mr Joel Stafford, Associate @ Innovation Centre Denmark, India (Bangalore office); and Mr Emil Lykke, Intern @ Consulate General of Denmark, Bangalore, also contributed to this interview)
 
(The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented)