Amit Rane is the Founder and Managing Director of the Pune headquartered WUDMIN ENERGY renewable energy company dealing with consulting financing, education, and technology transfer. He is into EV charging stations in Maharashtra and planning to spread the network possible. In a freewheeling chat, he shares his background, experience, and plans ahead to surge.
Excerpts from the interaction:
Q: How did your journey into the electric vehicle charging industry began?
Amit Rane: The journey started in 2012 when I was in the US with DFW and I was working on a project where they wanted to convert a high-speed electric testing track in North Carolina. The idea was to understand the scenario in 2030 as to what will happen when the electric vehicles will hit the road and the electric grid is shared. It wasn’t stimulation at that point in time but for understanding the situation. It was like studying various areas as electric vehicles were hardly there on the roads. It was more like knowing what others are doing in the world in this direction and the testing parameters; what’s the speed and things like that. Of course, Tesla had already started setting up charging stations even at that point in time. In fact, Tesla was very active on those lines.
What was the model you planned for charging electric vehicles?
Amit Rane: One of the options we came out with was, to develop a completely independent model, powered by renewable for charging electrical vehicles with existing rates whatever is applicable. My interest started growing in renewable models and independent sources of power and it took two years for me to come back to India because I saw bigger problems in India.
Q: What about green power in India?
Amit Rane: There was much talk about green power but India didn’t have adequacy of power nor was it power efficient. So, after coming over here I started working with a lot of people, understanding the requirements and I figured out that there was a gap between the service providers and service takers and started focusing on the renewable factors. That’s how I got into the renewable energy sector.
Q: When did you start your own company?
Amit Rane: We established WUDMIN ENERGY in 2014 with the sole purpose of getting people to know the benefits of renewable energy in different forms like solar etc. and the name was also interestingly designed. At that point in time, there was a huge chaos wherein 250 acres of forest land was allotted to Adani to put up a Thermal Power plant, and the land was lost in the bargain in Maharashtra. What we decided was that we should start educating people on how to minimize the usage of coal-based energy so that the dependency on crude oil for power consumption is brought to control.
Q: What about your chance to meet with APJ Abdul Kalam?
Amit Rane: In 2013 there was an interesting story where I met APJ Abdul Kalam and luckily I got to spend 20 minutes with him. He was speaking about Mission 2020 on How India can become a superpower. When I got a chance to meet him on one to one basis I asked him, you are talking about India becoming a superpower by 2020, but with the kind of infrastructure, we have do you think we will really become a superpower?...
…From the stage, corridor, and parking lot: Listening to the question, he asked me, Amit what do you do? I told him that I am an Electrical engineer working in the US and got back to India and working on renewable energy sources and it was just one year back in India. He smilingly patted my back and suggested said, come walk with me. So from the stage until where his car was parked, it was continuous discussion along the passage, elevator, one-way, and corridor…
…India will have 40 Gigawatt surpluses: He asked me, do you know how many houses are there in India? Then I said, no Sir, I don’t have any idea. He gave me certain figures and said if solar panels are put on these houses, then India will be 40 Gigawatt surpluses. So where is the question of whether we don’t have any electricity-related infrastructure? We just have to power every house with solar energy panels and the infrastructure will be ready by itself.
Q: What do you like to say about the investment in the renewable energy industry?
Amit Rane: And since then the solar industry has progressed rapidly and the actual revolution has begun from the year 2014. From 2012-2014 was like the incumbency stage and from 2014 onwards a lot of foreign investors started coming to India, we work with foreign investors also; it could be setting up power plants, we work with the rooftop segments, and we work with the Smart City projects also.
Q: What’s the scope of complete De-carbonization energy?
Amit Rane: But, now the investors have gone one step ahead and they want to work on complete de-carbonization energy. De-carbonization helps solar, wind, and electric vehicles. Their idea of de-carbonization is totally different, what they are saying is, we will come into a complete packaged client. If they are in need of electricity we will finance them. Now, there is a huge demand for carbon trading also.
Q: Is EV making any economic sense?
Amit Rane: EV is picking up very fast now in terms of economics as it makes a lot of economic sense in terms of operating costs. And even if you consider the market costs, say the batteries are charged at a price of Rs 25/-, the charge per kilometer comes to Rs 2.50/-. And, if you consider petrol and diesel mileage even the smallest of small cars will be Rs 8-9/- per kilometer. So, whichever way you try to look at it, it is completely economical. And even the market competition will force a reduction in charging prices as more the charging stations network will lead to a lesser price. It is also projected that the cost may also go down to Re One per kilometer and it is going to be a win-win situation.
Q: What about the prospects of charging at home?
Amit Rane: Even if you are talking about residential charging, the moment you cross a certain number of units the tariff will increase. So, residential EV charging at home will fall on the higher side as the cost of electricity will be high. Secondly, it will take seven to eight hours. The chargers that have come in the car are not designed to take the current required for charging a battery. People will also not understand how many units have been consumed and what is the billing for the same. Hence, there is a huge package that needs to be evolved on the overall consumption and charges levied for the same.
How big is the EV charging market set to grow in the years to come?
Amit Rane: If somebody has to drive from Bombay to Goa in a car, the fuel costs a few thousand and he will become stranded in the absence of charging stations on the way and back. In order to overcome this problem, it is necessary to develop a complete road map of charging stations all over. But, today’s problem is there are two types of charging methodologies, one is DC charging and the other is AC charging. AC has again two types; one is partial while one is fast charging and the remaining is slow. If a slow AC charging takes 2-3 days, the same can be done within 30 minutes by DC charging. So, now on the highways’ DC charging would be ideal. The charging market by 2030 could be to the tune of 6.5 billion dollars.
Q: Will the present scenario lead to a different type of entrepreneur on the way?
Amit Rane: Now what is happening is the return on investment on charging stations is not much. So, what needs to be done is you need to have a location where the utilization is higher, in the sense of how many cars can be charged in that particular station. So, people who have missed the boat in owning a petrol bunk can definitely give it a try now. The idea is, we will again stick to our old philosophy of creating green entrepreneurs in the EV charging market. We will educate the customers, tell them the right technologies, and tell them set up the business.
Q: Do you foresee a huge market for EV charging machines?
Amit Rane: Today, EV charging stations are a niche market with hardly two companies and 99 percent of the companies will bring the equipment from China and assemble them here. So, the idea is to promote job opportunities as presently there are only two companies to be benefitted in India. In this way, there is a tremendous market for manufacturing EV charging machines; it could be to two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers, etc
Q: As of now, there looks to be a big scarcity of charging stations. What’s the way out?
Amit Rane: The government of India has come out with a special subsidized tariff of Rs 5.50 per kilowatt for EV charging and the states have to adopt the policy. One needs to apply under a special EV charging category to set up charging stations. Now, what is happening is there is a scarcity of charging operators. Pune Municipality Transport Corporation (PMTC) buses are lying idle because of a lack of charging operators. It’s the same case with the KSRTC buses in Karnataka, and I am told that these include even 48 Volvo buses in one batch.
Q: What’s your role model for upcoming EV charging stations?
Amit Rane: Now, we will come up with tenders for setting up charging stations and their responsibility would be of hundred percent supplies. It would be sure for a business model. If somebody like a micro-entrepreneur comes, that can be attended to through a public-private enterprise. Government can provide land on the highways and charge for the premises providing infrastructure. At our charging stations on Pune-Mumbai national highway, when people started coming for charging and started wondering what we do for the 30-40 minutes. That’s when we came up with the idea of a clean toilet facility that can take care of such needs. Then some people started asking whether they could be provided drinking water, so we put up a water filter there. Some started inquiring about sandwiches and coffee, so we tied up and came to a coffee shop there. In this way, a series of services took off in a single place. We have made a tie-up with Kamath hotels so that people coming in the car can make use of the time and have refreshments, food, etc.
Q: Since you are done with Maharashtra, what about your plans in Karnataka?
Amit Rane: Karnataka is a rich potential market and Bengaluru has any number of avenues to put charging stations in places like Malls, Multiplexes, and busy roads wherever we get government parking, charging stations can come up. Bengaluru-Mysuru highway is one big spot in order to put charging station.
-Manohar Yadavatti
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