Smart Grids India - A need for smart planning

Dec. 18, 2012 - PRLog -- The North India power outage of 2012 left 300 million people without power for 15 hours and even disrupted the regular functioning of the National Capital. The question however remains, what steps are being taken to strengthen the system and avoid another blackout.  Though an audit of the protection systems was commissioned, a fundamental re-engineering and restructuring process to curb over drawing of power must be set in place. With rising demand for power in the urban sector, a focus on power supply to rural India must also be given top priority. The Ministry of Power has sent its proposal for addition of 76,000 MW of power capacity in the Twelfth Five Year plan (2012-2017) to the planning commission. Steps to encourage foreign investments in the power sector have also been taken with FDI up to 100 per cent that is permitted under automatic route for projects of electricity generation (except atomic energy), transmission, distribution and power trading.

Efficient transmission,distribution and monitoring systems play a pivotal role in any power related sector. Therefore, utmost care and attention must be given to ensure 100% reliability and accuracy when in operation. Smart technology and innovations coupled with Smart planning should now be the fundamental objective of Indian Power sector. The Indian smart meter market is estimated to be 100 million nodes alone and with the support of Government, revolutionizing India's Grid to an enhanced and dynamic network will be the solution to the current power problems.

Shri Reji Kumar Pillai, The President of India Smart Grid Forum quotes “Indian power sector MUST leverage smart grid technologies to alleviate the perennial problems of the sector – huge t&d losses, power cuts, poor quality of supply and equipment failure. Smart grids can provide end to end visibility of the system in real time that will facilitate effective management of all sources of generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of electricity; and also contribute to optimized asset utilization, increased employee productivity and better customer service.” A global perspective comes from Mr. Thor Hjartarson, Manager - System Reliability Planning at Toronto Hydro, who said "Today's Asset Management and Engineering is about finding optimal solutions for a complex system operated as close to utilization as possible. Smart Grid technologies and analytics will enable this through better system monitoring, more accurate and timely information as well as enhanced automation and operation. "

The Smart Grid India Energy Efficiency Optimization Summit on 20 & 21 February 2013, in New Delhi will touch upon the need to adopt grid and meter technologies that will pave the path to energy efficiency in India. The summit will host  speakers such as Shri Reji Kumar Pillai, Mr. Thor Hjartarson alongside Shri Tarun Kapoor from The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Shri V. Arunachalam from CPRI.

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