With more than 1.2 billion people in India and 230GW of installed capacity, any small improvement in the utility will have a magnified effect when it comes to gains. Smart grid technologies are vital to meeting India’s deficit in electrical power. Let us see where we are with its implementation
Dilin Anand and Abhishek Mutha
Thursday, June 05, 2014: In a power-starved country like India, technologies that can revolutionise the power grid may not have arrived at a better time. People, who feel that smart grid technologies only help those who already have access to basic electrical power, are mistaken. Not only they modernise our aging grids but they also help move towards more efficient power transmission, thus making more power available for distribution.
Fourteen smart grid pilot projects were approved for 50 per cent funding by the government of India in July 2013. The Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap document for India, a joint document by Ministry of Power, India Smart Grid Task Force and India Smart Grid Forum, was also released.
Out of the total 230GW capacity, the private sector contributes 73MW with approximately 12 per cent coming from renewable energy sources.
Major factors driving growth
When we talk about fast-moving markets, energy is a big one. Smart grid is a really big investment area around the world where the engineers need to move fast, but the requirements are not really specified yet. Thus there is a lot of opportunity for innovative solutions here. The Ministry of Power’s Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India, released in the second half of 2013, already places highest importance to providing supply of electricity to all households by 2017 through smart grid technologies. Most of these only implement basic building blocks required for smart grids, so the infrastructure can be later leveraged to transform them using smart grid technologies.
Reji Kumar Pillai, president of the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF), states in the roadmap preface that, “India can build smart grids with little or marginal costs as we have much better business cases for the same from huge efficiency gains that can accrue through automation and elimination of wastages of all kinds.” He adds that the market size of smart grid projects envisioned in the smart grid vision roadmap is about 30-40 billion dollars in the next 15-20 years.
Manufacturing in India has also started to see an uptrend. Avantha Group Company CG launched its state-of-the-art smart grid facility at the Global Village in Bangalore on January 13, 2014, for full-fledged manufacturing of smart grid devices. Besides manufacturing smart grid devices, the facility will support economic development, foster job creation and boost an understanding of smart grid solutions in the energy field.
The Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) has a 1200kV ultra high voltage (UHV) AC national test station, which is the world’s highest voltage level, located at Bina in Madhya Pradesh. The station provides a ground to test new equipment and technologies at a voltage level never seen before. Manufacturers worldwide have flocked to Bina to jointly explore whether 1200kV is a feasible new technology.
Manufacturing in India has also started to see an uptrend. Avantha Group Company CG launched its state-of-the-art smart grid facility at the Global Village in Bangalore on January 13, 2014, for full-fledged manufacturing of smart grid devices. Besides manufacturing smart grid devices, the facility will support economic development, foster job creation and boost an understanding of smart grid solutions in the energy field.
The Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) has a 1200kV ultra high voltage (UHV) AC national test station, which is the world’s highest voltage level, located at Bina in Madhya Pradesh. The station provides a ground to test new equipment and technologies at a voltage level never seen before. Manufacturers worldwide have flocked to Bina to jointly explore whether 1200kV is a feasible new technology.
Incoming investments. BORG Energy India will invest US$ 45 million in Indian market for rural electrification and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects within six months after January 2014. BORG is also planning to set up an R&D facility in 2016 towards nanotechnology in solar panels, said Joseph Fournier, director, BORG Inc at a press meet on 13th January.
CG has invested Rs. 80 million in a manufacturing facility for smart grid devices, which has been set up in Bangalore and can employ more than 100 people. The smart grid facility will manufacture substation automation products, distribution automation devices, protection and control systems, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and telecommunication solutions. It will also offer global engineering services such as systems integration, installation and commissioning. The facility is fully equipped with modern equipment to ensure an annual production capacity of 10,000 units of power line carrier communication terminals (PLCCs) and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs).
Trends to look out for
Whilst the integration of renewable energy systems into existing grids will help cater to higher demand and improving efficiency, it will also need to consider the challenges posed by new consumption models like EVs and home automation. Additionally, increased use of sensors into different aspects of the grid, such as transformers, allows analysts to gain more data from the grid that they can then use for forecasting. “Furthermore, with the internet of things (IoT) enablement, smart meters and homes will come into play, which will further help optimise energy consumption,” adds Shailesh Thakurdesai, business development manager—microcontrollers, Texas Instruments, India.
“Based on the feedback that we received, this market also requires an extended temperature operating range of -40°C to 70°C and shares a need for secure Ethernet, redundant power supply, additional serial ports and running these new protocols such as DNP3 or IEC 61850,” explains Jamie Smith, director, Embedded Systems in a previous interview with EFY.
Microgrids are another popular trend. Enabling local power generation, microgrids comprise various small power-generating sources that make them highly fexible and efficient. Talking about this, “We have integrated existing hardware components in the market with a powerful embedded system. The setup forms an electricity grid that is small enough to be called a microgrid. This system is powered by renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaics (PVs), wind and micro-hydel. It can be remotely monitored from anywhere in the world,” explains Ganesh Shankar, managing director, FluxGen Engineering Technologies.
One smart grid application example is with LocalGrid Technologies, which focusses on a microgrid application where they are controlling the energy coming on and off the grid. “This application is able to provide security features because it is based on Linux, and the additional performance made this a more viable solution for the smart grid compared to that achievable with the NI cRIO-9074 system,” adds Smith.
Government policies promoting smart grid implementation
B. N. Sharma, IAS, joint secretary, Ministry of Power, states in the roadmap that APDRP-I upgraded basic electricity networks in 56 urban circles, whereas RGGVY electrified 56 million households. The ongoing R-APDRP covers 1401 towns across state-owned electricity distribution companies. under this programme, the distribution companies are building their IT networks and a set of basic IT and automation systems for the first time.
What needs to be done to get things moving
The Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission (KSERC) has put in place a system to enable large power consumers to access energy from sources of their own choice, using the linked network of transmission and distribution licencees.
Power Grid Corporation of India jointly with Electricity Department, government of Puducherry, is developing a smart grid pilot project at Puducherry through open collaboration. The project is being implemented to achieve a common information-sharing platform, scalable and replicable at other places, and shall also help in demonstration of effectiveness of each functionality. This project requires approximately 87,000 smart meters and a street-light automation solution that will prove substantial savings to the electricity department of the government of Puducherry (PED). CG’s utility distribution franchise that operates in Jalgaon efficiently manages the multiple data obtained from the intelligent devices installed at all voltage levels, enhancing the quality of service provided to the utility’s end users and drastically reduces technical and non-technical losses.
Authorities have come out with four types of electronic meters, and specifications for those have been released. Features of those are frozen on the payment side as well as the relay for remote connect disconnect feature. “What is lacking is the communications protocol that is currently open ended. This is currently being managed by the system integrator based on what makes sense to them depending on the area,” says Thakurdesai. Government is starting 14 smart grid pilot projects across cities in India, to implement certain technology, and to understand this from an Indian deployment perspective.
Under the current 12th 5-year Plan, the government will roll out full smart grids in pilot project cities, as well as the infrastructure for AMI to all consumers with load greater than 20kW. The government is also working on the implementation of dynamic tariffs, mandatory demand response programmes for certain categories of customers and a tariff mechanism for rooftop solar PVs.
We can also expect the first set of technical standards after completion of pilots, including standards for EVs and their charging infrastructure. Moreover, 10 per cent of utility technical personnel are to be trained in smart grid solutions.
“Now, there is an upcoming rule, which has already started in a few states, that people who are pumping harmonics into the network will be penalised. Harmonics is not generated from the source side but the load side. The consumer is the culprit who is using a lot of equipment generating harmonics. Now everyone will wake up,” says A.V. Srinivasan, area manager—south, MB Controls and Systems. Big companies already have a solution to suppress harmonics; they are not allowing the harmonics to go out but are retaining them, which is also bad in a way.
Challenges faced in India
Developed countries are characterised by already having a reliable electrical infrastructure coupled with miniscule growth rates which allow them to easily focus on smartening up their grids with data gathering and analytics. However, in India, there needs to be a simultaneous focus on growing the basic electrical network to ensure that power is available to more remote villages, whilst at the same time upgrade and automate existing networks with smart grid technologies. What are the challenges in doing this?
Aging infrastructure. A large part of the infrastructure in India is several decades old, and reaching the end of their useful life.
The biggest challenge is the infrastructure in rural areas, where the range and distance are very large to the tune of 200km. In urban areas, meters are placed in very close proximity and the environment is not 100 per cent stable for this. Thakurdesai explains that the environment keeps changing, and finding the technology that works in this kind of environment is pretty challenging. Additionally, there are 50+ standards in the electrical meter segment. These vary based on the utility providers, and every state comes out with its own set of features and standards. These problems exist at the product level but these challenges have to be worked hand-in-hand with the consumers.
Lack of communication standards. There are no standard protocols for communication in India. Various utilities experiment in a different manner. Maharashtra has looked at Zigbee protocol for AMR-related data collection. “Certain states are using proprietary 2.4GHz for communication; we also have seen states like Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh with sub-1G requirements. For the frequency band of 865MHz to 867MHz, the communication topology or protocol are still not standardised,” adds Thakurdesai.
New consumption models. The new consumption models that have come up, such as automated buildings and electric vehicles, can be utilised to balance the stress on the grid. Systems should be in place to ensure that the energy storage and control solutions built into these can be used. Such as ensuring that they are set into consumption mode when the stress on the grid is low, and into energy source mode (if available through PV or energy storage) when the grid is in its peak load time.
Securing power supply. Electricity demand is increasing significantly, especially when basic power supply is extended to those remote areas that currently lack it. In this scenario, smart grid technologies should be able to help with efficient and reliable transmission and distribution (T&D) of electricity. The current SCADA-based system will no more be opened up to access once smart grid technologies are integrated to it, so the challenge of keeping it secure becomes a bigger one.
Labour unions. A potential area for trouble could come from labour unions. The implementation of smart grid technologies brings about the same kind of problems that you would expect from automating anything—a lot of manual labour gets converted into skilled labour. As Sandra Diethelm, CEO, Exuta (India) puts it, skill sets will change from climbing power poles to data analysts sitting in offices.
Other challenges for implementing smart gird in the Indian scenario include access to electricity for 80 million households, availability of quality power at least during evenings, and reducing losses at the transmission and distribution side.
What can we expect as smart grid technologies get implemented
First, let us see why electricity suddenly becomes very important in the scenario. “This is because electricity is becoming a scarce product,” explains Srinivasan. He adds that what was earlier a capital investment has now sort of become a product investment. This makes people cautious with respect to using electricity.
As of now with respect to telecommunication, if you do not pay your phone bill, they disconnect your connection. Likewise, there is going to be control for electricity in the near future, i.e., utility can control your power. If I do not pay my electricity bill, my power will be cut off. Of course there will be other parameters that will be considered for cutting electricity supply, like if you are over-shooting your margin demand (MD) control, or if you are introducing some harmonics, etc. These things will be monitored by the utility and the end user will also be cautioned. There will be total control, and this is where we are heading.
Srinivasan says that one thing that has already started on a larger scale in India is stock exchanges for power. One person will be bidding for the power for a particular region for a particular period. “Suppose, I want to bid for Bangalore for a particular period of time, I will specify how much power I might need and bid for it. If successful, I will be sanctioned the specified amount of power for that amount and I can then sell it.”
For this facility, there is a national grid element called load dispatch centre (LDC), which gets information from all generators who are pumping power into the grid. One will be aware of the power available, on a national level, for distribution and also how many people are consuming it. For this purpose, either interface meters or smart grid meters are used. From the generating station, the LDC will be measuring how much power is being pumped in online, power quality and status of the breakers, i.e., if they are switched on or off. There are various levels of hierarchy for LDC operations such as national, regional, state level and sub-load dispatch centers, adds Srinivasan.
Both the authors are senior correspondents at EFY Bengaluru
