In the India's southern state of Kerala, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is the main power utility that supplies electricity, but there are smaller, state-run players like KINESCO, which focuses to serve commercial and industrial consumers in the textile, food processing and information technology parks in about three districts. As C&I consumers increasingly seek renewable energy to achieve their sustainability goals, discoms like KINESCO must strategise to cater to them. As a first step, KINESCO recently signed an MoU with WRI India to conduct a study to recommend building resilience within KINESCO's distribution infrastructure to better serve its C&I consumers. KINESCO has also initiated several rooftop solar projects on their premises to promote clean energy as well.  

In the final episode in this series at The Energy Pod, where we examine how India's utilities could scale offering renewable energy, we spoke to Ajith Kumar, CEO, KINESCO, who said innovative tariff structures like green tariffs could be suitable for Kerala, as this could help the state's commercial and industrial consumers avail clean energy with least investment. He also spoke about the constraints of installing large-scale, ground-mounted solar plants in the state. 

This series is anchored by Deepak Krishnan, Associate Director, WRI India Energy Program; edited by freelance sound engineer Rajesh Mukkath; and scripted and directed by Kunal Shankar, Senior Communications Manager, WRI India Energy Program. Dhilon Subramanian, Senior Project Associate, WRI India Energy Program, assisted with the interview.

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