Mr. Vijay Sirse is the Founder Chairman and CEO of vTrium Energy Pte. Ltd., a Singapore incorporated company specializing in energy management, electricity retail and distributed power generation. Mr. Sirse is an entrepreneur, innovator, investor, developer. He also owns companies that carry out projects in these cutting edge technologies, with Singapore as the Headquarter.
vTrium Energy’s subsidiary Red Dot Power Pte. Ltd. is a licensee of Electricity Retail and is a Market Participant in the National Electricity Market of Singapore (NEMS) and Electricity Futures Market administered by SGX Singapore.
Mr. Sirse has more than 33 years of experience in business development, project financing and asset management in the electricity sector. His experience encompasses 360 degree private power projects development and implementation of frontier technology application solutions in Emerging Markets.
Prior to starting his own venture vTrium Energy, Mr. Sirse has worked in many multinational companies like Globeleq (an Actis UK subsidiary), El Paso Energy, USA and ABB. While at El Paso, Mr. Sirse successfully developed, implemented and operated the first IPP project in Bangladesh and a major IPP in Indonesia.
1. What do you think of the SIEW 2016 theme “New Energy Realities”?
SIEW’s theme appropriately reflects the opportunities and challenges we face in the current scene, with lower prices across the energy value chain.
The COP21 Paris agreement has given new impetus to the deployment of renewables, which will pose new challenges due to the integration of intermittent and distributed generation sources into the grid. New technological solutions, such as megawatt-scale (MW) batteries that are connected to the grid coupled with demand response, also have the potential to drive the next phase of energy innovation.
We are also seeing an increasing trend of “prosumers” where consumers are producing energy at distributed power generation sites. This is in contrast to using large generators to serve the population. This – in addition to the advancements in smarter technologies, systems and networks – is changing the traditional generator utility model and shaping a new energy reality.
2. What in your view will be the biggest game changer for Asia’s power sector?
The most critical and significant game changer for Asia’s power sector is increased capacity contribution from renewable energy generation resources, e.g. solar, wind and biomass. A paradigm shift in the way the current electricity transmission and distribution system operates is required to ensure smooth integration of such intermittent resources. This may result in greater deployment of microgrids and distributed power generation in national grids.
Another game changer is the potential for an integrated ASEAN electricity grid. This would allow the flow of power to find its most economic route through the seamless integration of electricity markets across the region. This will provide significant market opportunities for electricity retailers in cross-border trade. This could also help local electricity retailers internationalise their operations beyond Singapore’s established and liberalised electricity market.
3. What is the outlook for smart grid and energy storage technologies?
There is a strong impetus to make the whole electricity supply chain right to the end consumer even “smarter”. The wider adoption of cutting edge technologies such as microgrid applications, communication technologies, data management and analysis, cyber security, small to grid scale storage solutions are transforming the electricity grid. This provides greater opportunities for technology innovation and real-time adoption.
Safe and scalable energy storage technologies are core to all smart grid solutions. We are working with leading international energy storage solutions companies to test-bed various battery technologies integration with state-of-the-art software, for optimal techno-commercial value realisation.
Energy storage is key to realising the full potential of renewable energy integration into the grid for quality and reliable power. Storage solutions play a crucial function in the microgrid structure, by providing critical system services to buffer the impact of fluctuating power demand and supply.
4. Where in Asia do you see opportunities for integrated energy solutions that are innovative and scalable?
Integrated energy solutions are the way forward. Consumers will require bundled services from service providers who have in-depth understanding and technical capabilities in integrating all the components of the electricity value chain. For example, Red Dot Power offers solutions that bundles retail electricity, facility electricity demand management (demand response), on-site/off-site solar power generation and battery storage solutions.
For solar power generation, organic PV solutions which can be placed on every usable part of a building façade are opening up significant opportunities for large-scale penetration of solar systems. This is especially so in highly urbanised cities where open space and roof tops come at a premium. This is a paradigm shift in the way solar systems will be implemented going forward and has the potential to disrupt established solar power generation models. Couple this with battery storage solutions, and you have a solution that could potentially transform every building into a power generator.
5. Looking ahead, what are your strategies to capitalise on the evolving energy market?
Red Dot Power’s core focus is on the consumer, whether they are SMEs or large manufacturing and commercial facilities. Every consumer is important, and they will get the same attention and quality service irrespective of energy consumption levels.
Our mission is to be an integrated renewable energy solutions provider that harnesses the power of sun and wind combined with technological innovations in electricity demand management, electricity retail and MW scale battery storage solutions in either stand-alone or micro-grid architecture. The objective for Red Dot Power is to be the preferred integrated energy solutions provider across the electricity value chain.
To achieve this, we have assembled a pool of highly dedicated and committed team in Singapore, with a state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre. While we cement our market position in the Singapore market, we are constantly exploring opportunities to internationalise our operations in key markets in Southeast Asia, India and Middle East, to take advantage of these evolving energy markets.