Women can help to fill this skills gap required for the energy transition, say Forum
Organized by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the WePOWER India Partnership Forum, a virtual platform, was launched on 9 November 2021 in efforts to scale up the South Asia Women in Power Sector Professional Network (WePOWER).
This important initiative was attended by 168 key energy sector stakeholders, the India Smart Grid Forum said in a release.
India is significantly investing in clean energy, grid modernization, and digitalisation of its utilities. Consequently, job profiles in the Indian energy sector are evolving with more emphasis on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and renewable energy solutions, the forum noted.
There is a growing demand for skilled human resources to fill these new green jobs. Women can help to fill this skills gap required for the energy transition. However, the participation of women in the energy sector remains very low. To address this, the energy sector must attract, develop and retain talented women professionals.
The World Bank is committed to promoting gender equality in the Indian electricity sector. Towards this goal, the World Bank, in collaboration with ADB, launched the WePOWER in February 2019. WePOWER is a network of 28 energy sector utilities and organizations committed to implementing systematic and incremental gender activities to support workforce participation of women in energy projects and utilities, and promote normative change for women and girls in Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education.
“Women will be needed to fill the increasing talent demand in the power sector, and their participation in technical and professional roles can contribute greatly to the sector’s effectiveness,” said Vishal Kapoor, Joint Secretary – Distribution, Ministry of Power, at the launch.
“Indian power sector has made progresses in terms of diversifying the work place and increasing women’s participations, including in leadership positions. In a survey of 28 Indian DISCOMs it was found that 4/5th of them have at least one female at top positions. This represents the growth of women’s participation in power sector,” Kapoor told the Forum.
Overall, the stakeholders agreed that initiatives like WePOWER are important to attracting and retaining more women in the energy sector. The initiative received a lot of appreciation, positive feedback, and interest from the participating energy sector professionals.
In the coming months, WePOWER will host in-depth meetings with prominent stakeholders from the sector to take forward the agenda of increasing women’s participation in the power sector, said the Forum. #investment #projects #skill #technology /fiinews.com
