Nearly a million people in India still need access to reliable and affordable power supplies, according to an estimate by Tata Power and the Rockefeller Foundation.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity to transform the lives of millions of people in India by providing access to power,” said Rajiv J Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. He said that there is an opportunity to provide reliable and affordable power to one million people in the country.

This is an opportunity that TP Renewable Microgrid Limited, a joint venture between Tata Power and The Rockefeller Foundation will be exploring. The joint venture has anticipated a roll-out of 10,000 micro grids across the country where power supplies are restricted.

The view that there is a need to have the means to externally improve the power supply situation contrasts with the government’s claims of assuring 24×7 reliable supplies through power distribution companies.

“We will be targeting villages where there is intermittent access or where the power distribution companies are not keen on supplying power at the existing tariffs. We are targeting setting up these micro-grids in 10,000 of the 6 lakh villages in the country. This is going to supplement the work being done by the governments,” said Praveer Sinha, CEO at Tata Power.

The Rockefeller Foundation will be providing technical expertise to the enterprise, having built microgrids that distributed electricity to more than 200 villages in rural India, the statement said.

TP Renewable Microgrid Limited is expected to provide clean power to nearly 5 million households, directly impacting the lives of 25 million people over the next decade.

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