The electricity sector in India supplies the world's 5th largest energy consumer accounting for 4.0% of global energy consumption by more than 17% of global population. To satisfy the needs of rising energy consumption - but also to solve electricity wastage, India has identified that during typical transmission and distribution between 30 to 45% electricity is lost, and modernizing these systems to be more energy efficient is a key task to secure future economic growth. These losses are due to inefficient metering, proper energy accounting and auditing, but with the use of smart grid technology, India's power generation industries have a way to overcome these power shortage issues.
Smart Grids - The Way Forward
In order to efficiently deliver reliable, economical ,and sustainable electricity services, the Government of India has been moving the transmission and distribution of electricity to a new smart grid model. Smart grids attempt to predict and intelligently respond to the behavior and actions of all electric power users connected to it - both suppliers and consumers.
Transmission, distribution and electricity usage are reported real-time via smart controls, and a smart grid can respond instantaneously to provide just enough energy as required, as well as being able to monitor, regulate and maintain itself.
This smarter process is another example of the intelligent use of technology that brings greater efficiency to the grid and allows consumers to actively participate in optimizing the system as well providing information and choice of supply.
Smart Grids in India
For electricity transmission reforms, Powergrid (Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd) needed to make plans for keeping pace with the increasing complexities of grid operation in a dynamically changing electricity market, by continuously upgrading load dispatch centers through Wide Area Monitoring, Adoptive Islanding, Voltage Security Assessments, and Dynamic Security Assessments.
For electricity distribution reforms, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a "Re-structured APDRP" project scheme. This program included projects for establishment of baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting/auditing & IT based consumer service centers, and included regular distribution strengthening projects. There were four goals needed for Smart Grids in India to succeed: 1. The end of load shedding (peak load shifting through combination of direct control and differential pricing (demand response/dynamic DSM). 2. Reliable power. 3. Cheaper prices. 4. More
sustainable power.
Smart Substation Solution
Technics, New Delhi, an India based channel partner of Advantech who delivers industrial automation solutions for the power & energy industry, designed a Data Concentrator solution for a Government of India R-APDRP substation project. The project was in two stages, phase I and phase II. For phase I, Technics used Advantech's ADAM-5550CE Programmable Automation Controllers with ADAM-5017 (Analog Input), ADAM-5053S and ADAM-5057S (High Density DI/O) I/O modules and Technics own control software. The Data Concentrator solution needed to be able to transfer input data to a control center and accept commands from the control center to control the switchgear at the substation. To satisfy Technics' requirement, Advantech (PAC division)created special customized solid state memory for their needs. Technics then had to integrate the whole system with the customer's SCADA system.
Mr Abhay Tandon, CEO of Technics said, "Integration and communication with the end-user's SCADA system was a major challenge. It took our team 800 man days to overcome design challenges and successfully implement the desired solution, but joint efforts put in by Advantech and Technics design teams saw us through. We chose to work on this project with Advantech because of their wide-range product portfolio as well as vertical market domain know how."
"Power & Energy customers also require long lifetime product support, so Advantech was the natural choice having been in the automation business for over 25 years. They could supply our customer with the longevity guarantees they needed. Technics software with Advantech's ADAM-5000 series controllers provided the smart solution our customer needed," said Mr Tandon.
Technics Software and Advanetch's Industrial Controllers Improve Power Generation Efficiency
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