Srinagar: The National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar on Monday hosted the first virtual discussion with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India on a project proposal titled ‘Practical roadmap towards a green hydrogen economy in Ladakh by 2030.
The meeting was presided over by Director NIT Srinagar Prof. (Dr.) Rakesh Sehgal and Dean Research and Consultancy NIT Srinagar, Prof G.A Harmain. While Anish Mandal Director (Consulting -Energy & Resources), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP along with other members attended the meeting.
On the occasion, Prof. Sehgal said that there is a need to identify the major installations like banks, malls, or other locations where Diesel Generator (DG sets) are being used in case there are power shutdowns.
“We need to find out the shutdown schedules in Ladakh region, like how long DG sets are being used in various organizations, so that will be part of the study. The study will also touch the total power generation or energy consumed through diesel sets as compared to electric power,” he said.
The Director said NIT is primarily a teaching and research organization but for doing this kind of a survey activity, we may have to hire some experts, trained technical people, and locals for the same.
“To start the project activities, NIT Srinagar needs some seed money from the consultancy company. We have already rules and regulations from the Board of Governors (BOG) and according to that, if we execute any project then the amount has come to NIT first, then execution of the project will start, he said. Prof. Sehgal said the rules of BOG cannot be overruled or violated by anybody.
Dean Research and Consultancy, Prof G.A Harmain said at this time cooking gas essentially methane. In steam methane reformation in which Hydrogen is created from Methane, so that means the sector which is involved in cooking gas and other stuff like that many have to think on those lines.
While citing the example of Canada, Prof Harmain said they had a huge type of project in which they were having steam reformation for the creation of Hydrogen, so that particular route can also be thought for this proposal.
“I will suggest Deloitte to bifurcate project into small capsules and release amount accordingly after the first proposal gets executed and then NIT will submit another proposal,” he said.
On the occasion, Mr. Anish Mandal Director (Consulting -Energy & Resources), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP said if the project will be executed by NIT Srinagar, they will be only acting as a monitoring agency.
“If a government had decided that this UT needed to be completely green, to do that what kind of a costs needs to be done. So without doing this study, nobody can take an informal choice, how much cost is involved in it. To do this they want to commission this study and understand what kind of feasible options are there,” he said.
Regarding the replacement of DG sets, Mr. Mandal suggested that more from DG sets they need to estimate demand, and the first task would be to come out with an energy demand estimate, where can be successfully replaced by the green hydrogen.
Meanwhile, the meeting was also attended by several other members from NIT Srinagar who are members are working in the renewable type of energy research including Dr. Parvez Malik from the Chemical Engineering Department, Dr. H. S. Pali from Chemical Engineering Department, 3. Dr. Ravi Bushan from Electrical Engineering Department and Dr. Shrikant S. Maktedar from Chemistry Department.
While Himadri Singha – Associate Director – Deloitte India, Bali, Bhoopinder from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP were also present in the meeting.
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