Top Leadership Taking Fast Decisions Sustained Power-Grid During Lockdown: Amarnath Verma, Executive Director (HR) of NTPC
Power generation, distribution, and transmission of units and services are some of the essential services allowed during this lockdown. With the entire country facing lockdown since March last week and citizens are staying at their homes, sustaining continuous electrification has become nothing short of a major challenge to the power companies. Taking the challenges head-on, India’s largest electricity company NTPC (formerly, National Thermal Power Corporation) has been providing an uninterrupted electric supply during this period. In fact, NTPC Vindhyachal branch has recently become the largest power plant of the country to achieve a PLF (plant load factor) of 100 percent. (The 100 percent PLF entail the power plant was run in its full capacity for a certain period. Also, more the PLF, more will be the revenue of the plant.)
On the 5th of April at 9’o clock when there was a complete shutdown of power across the country, the management of the grid was a great challenge. Amarnath Verma, Executive Director (HR), NTPC informed about the day that given the challenge, leaders in the power sector collaborated massively to ensure the power-grid is sustained and stays stable. According to Verma, the greatest help was continuous conversation points between the top leadership of the sector. Verma was speaking at the BW People Presents BW Dialogue on People Power in Association with BW Businessworld.
As per Verma's observation, much of the steady functioning of the New Delhi-headquartered NTPC during the lockdown is because of top leadership taking fast decisions to counteract all the challenges along the way. He stated, “The top leadership from Delhi, regional directors, and all the business unit heads used to take account of the situation every day and took a lot of decisions very fast. This way we sustained the power and maintained the sustainability of the grid.” NTPC has in total of 70 power stations. That includes 24 coal, 7 combined cycle gas/liquid fuel, 13 renewable, one hydro.
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However, Verma also agrees that the 62,000 plus megawatt company has also faced tough challenges due to Covid-19 situation during the last 72 days of lockdown. He pointed out that there was a need to ensure the morale of their employees is in the right place during the entire time. Analyzing further, he stated that the lessons learned during the period will be passed on – there will be a change in working style and philosophy post-Covid. He believed that since all people have experienced similar constraints during this period, empathy is bound to grow among people after this – both from an organizational perspective and in general.
Verma also addressed a long-held perception in people that the power sector is very traditional. “We work very seamlessly on our digital platform,” he stated, discarding the perception completely. Verma further informed, “We already had a digital platform called Pradip, where all the decisions were processed online. So there was no problem right from the early days of this lockdown.”
Verma spoke of the contribution of NTPC during this period shared, “Apart from the power generation, as a PSU – a social arm of the government, we have to provide a lot of support to the outsourced workers. We also provided a lot of support to the local authorities in 60 odd locations across the country.” The country’s biggest electricity generator has recently signed a preliminary agreement with India’s top oil and gas producer ONGC to set up a joint venture for renewable energy projects. During the lockdown period this fiscal, the NTPC is to give Rs 1,363 crore to discount to the distribution companies (discoms) on fixed or capacity charges.
