Power Secretary Mr. P Uma Shankar during his keynote speech at The 2nd World Smart Grid Conference India Week held in New Delhi said “India has the installed capacity of more than 205 GW which is the world’s 5th largest capacity and is projected to go up to 685 GW by 2027. In the last 5 years we have added 55 GW of capacity and during 2012-17 we intend to add in excess of 80 GW of capacity. The transmission network has also to keep pace with increase in generation and consumption of electricity. So, in the next 5 years we intend to add 110,000 CKM of transmission lines with 270,000 MVA of transmission capacity. In India, we have more generation capacity in east and north-east region because of resources while the requirement of power is higher in western and southern states. Therefore we need to have larger inter-regional capacities to transmit power to the consumption centers.”
“The existing inter-regional capacity at present is about 28,000 MW and is projected to grow by 44,000 MW in the next 5 years. Smart technology is being leveraged to meet this increasing demand. We are moving toward super grid comprising of hybrid transmission line of 765 kV, 1200kV AC and ±800 kV, 600 MW HVDC systems, which facilitates uninterrupted transmission of power. PGCIL has also taken up the project called unified real time dynamics state measurement using approx 1750 PMU’s at important power plant locations, 32 number of data concentrators and using fibre optic communication network for data transmission and improved system operations.”
“On the distribution side Government of India has taken the initiative to use information technology to modernize the distribution solution network under various reforms. We already have projects for rehabilitations in 1402 towns across the country involving 220 million people, which is 1/6 of the population. The 30% of the total energy is believed to be consumed by these towns. Under this project we are IT enabling the distribution network by mapping all the electrical assets of the town, consumer indexing and mapping all consumers with the DT’s measuring the flow regime to the towns. Under the same program we are implementing SCADA systems in more than 60 towns which will improve the reliability and quality of power to be transferred. We intend to connect consumers with distribution agencies, by the way of bi-lateral communication and by deployment of suitable smart meters at consumer premises. Consumptions data that are being collected from the consumers end will help the utilities to understand their needs in order to offer the better reliable power with better commercial system. In the next 5 year we intend to expand it to another 1300 towns.”
“The share of renewable energy in the present installed capacity is 25 GW, which is 12% of the total installed capacity. The share of renewable energy is expected to grow further by another 30 GW in the coming 5 years. A study has estimated that the potential of renewable in the country is about 183,000 MW till 2032. To harmonize and calibrating the smart grid through the initiative of the pilot projects with the utilities are been undertaken. The government has shortlisted the 14 pilot projects to integrate with the consumer smart grid meters. The pilot projects will help the utilities in the condition based monitoring of the critical assets like distribution transformer and help the utilities to take proactive steps. The likely cost of these pilots is Rs. 4 billion. World over the cost of smart meter is $100 to $200 depending on the functionality. But in India, given the large consumer base the program of optimization of smart meters will be on-stream by the end of next year to produce indigenous low cost smart meters with proven combination of technologies. Smart grid is an evolving field and country is still on the learning curve.”