Azure Power’s success is tied to the communities they serve, and they are firm believers of inclusive growth for the communities where they build projects. Azure Power prefers to hire and train staff locally and lease land from communities. The jobs and discretionary cash flow that these projects create for communities, which are often in remote locations, foster support for these projects and growth for the local communities.
The case competition in association with Azure Power was aimed at putting the best minds of our nation to work on a project that might change India’s renewable energy landscape and transform the lives of millions. With a tentative budget of 5 crores, the finalists were challenged to device a full-fledged business solution to set up microgrids in rural India. Microgrids or isolated grids are a set of electricity generators and possibly energy storage systems that are interconnected to a distribution network that supplies electricity to a localized group of customers. They involve small-scale electricity generation (approximately 10 kW) which serves a limited number of consumers via a distribution grid that can operate in isolation from national electricity transmission networks.
The contestants were urged to design mini-grids of size 10-13 KW for clusters of houses consisting of 80-90 households of un-electrified villages. The solution of the case had to include a holistic strategy on how to electrify non-electrified households in a self-sustained manner, identify states and villages where the mini-grid plants can be set up, identify NGO’s with local expertise in mini-grids with which Azure Power can collaborate to set up the mini-grid plants and creating a plan for the promotion and marketing of these CSR activities
While solving the case, the participants must also consider the real-life constraints faced in execution like land acquisition for setting up the grid, operations and maintenance for the rest of the life of the mini-grid plant, overloading and misuse of electricity, reluctance of allowing the village land to be used and consuming electricity, problems of power theft and how to empower every villager not to follow power theft practice etc.
With prizes, worth INR 85,000 for the winning teams, over 400 teams from B-Schools across the country registered to participate in the case competition. After two gruelling rounds consisting of an online simulation and an off-campus case study, eight finalist teams were invited to the campus to present their case solutions to the judging panel during Manfest-Varchasva 2017. The judging panel consisted of Mr Mohor Sen, Chief Administrative Officer of Azure Powers, Ms Samitla Subba, General Manager – Marketing and Communication of Azure Power and Mr Sanjay Khosla.
Team SP Crew, from S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, consisting of Mr.Subrat Sharma and Mr.Mayank Singh emerged winners, while Team CM208, from MDI Gurgaon, consisting of Mr. Shailav Goel and Mr. Garvit Sindhwani came second.
The successful collaboration between Azure Power and Manfest-Varchasva ended up in a beneficial outcome for the renewable energy sector of our country. It also aided in introducing the budding leaders of tomorrow to a sector that is fast growing in our country and that holds limitless potential and challenges in the years to come. We wish Azure Power all the best in all its future endeavors and eagerly look forward to all further avenues of collaboration with the company.
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