SMART ENERGY India’s smart grid roadmap – chasing transformation India published the Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India in September 2013 and this document is set to change the way people in India perceive and interact with power because the road map doesn’t just change the way things have been done in India: it reimagines India’s future. Over the past decade, India’s power grid has doubled in size – just as it did in the decade before that. This kind of growth has made India the fourth largest power system in the world, even though consumption is very low and is deemed to be due to suppressed demand. India’s current installed capacity is 225GW and but demand is forecast to reach a capacity of 900GW by 2032. In order to keep up with this demand, plus meet the objectives of an renewable energy plan which aims to have 32GW of renewable energy installed by 2020, and address transmission and distribution losses, India’s smart grid roadmap addresses the holistic objectives of the country and regions. Key objectives of the roadmap are as follows: Utilities: 1. Substantial reduction of AT&C losses in all utilities 2. Peak load management – multiple options 3. Reduction in power purchase cost 4. Better asset management 5. Increased grid visibility 6. Self-healing grid 7. Renewable integration Customers: 1. Expand access to electricity – “Power for All” 2. Improve reliability of supply to all customers – no power cuts, no more DG sets and inverters 3. Improve quality of supply – no more voltage stabilizers 4. User friendly and transparent interface with utilities 5. Increased choices for consumers, including green power 6. Options to save money by shifting loads from peak periods to off-peak periods Government and Regulators: 1. Satisfied customers 2. Financially sound utilities 3. Tariff neutral system upgrade and modernization 4. Reduction in carbon and other pollutant emissions and emission intensity Speaking to Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Smart Grid Initiative, self- made telecoms millionaire and sometimes controversial figure, it is easy to understand why he has been so successful, and garnered so much criticism during his career. This is a man of vision who questions traditional structures and ways of thinking – and it shows in his accomplishments. Metering International had the opportunity to speak with Pitroda about the reform process and India’s smart grid roadmap. In order for the country to continue growing at the rate proposed, India needs skills and energy and these are the two fundamental challenges going forward. The country needs to upgrade skills to 90 reflect the realities of the 21st century and needs to provide power to its industries for growth Says Pitroda: “Power is a big challenge – today we have serious shortages of power, power for residential, factories, institutions. All of these are challenges because we import a lot of oil - it’s one of our biggest imports. When I look at the overall power situation, we all realise that whatever we can do to improve productivity, increase efficiency, reduce cost is going to go a long way. The power system today needs major reforms and some are going on, but it’s not enough. So we need to begin to privatise some of it, we need to use technology for alternative sources – whether it is wind, solar, biomass. The grid we have is based on the traditional utility approach that focuses on centralised power generation and distributing power through a traditional power network. That architecture of centralised power dominates the global field today. Some of us very strongly believe that India needs a whole new architecture for power – we need to go, in the long run, quickly to distributed power, microgrids and DC power. This is turning the whole system upside down. But it will take time. Fortunately, the technology is available today to attempt to do these kinds of things: reasonably cost effectively solar, with a lot of IT technology for smart grids. So our interest in the Smart Grid comes from this angle. It is not about taking the existing grid and making it smarter, but the real piece of the puzzle is to make a new architecture, completely, for energy using learning from the smart grid exercise. “World over, the Smart Grid is about smart metering to control appliances like air conditioners, but our approach is very different – we need Indian solutions, we need an Indian model of development. We cannot take the Western model of development lock, stock and barrel and hope it will work in India.” A lot of our utilities don’t even provide computerised billing – we don’t get bills on a regular basis, a lot of it is still manual. That is technology that is required. I said can we computerise the billing, make sure there is no leakage in billing at least, can we make sure we collect on time, and can we improve productivity and efficiency with technology we already know works. Okay, so there is no rocket science here. Can we look at the computerisation of our utilities – that is one task – although it is not directly connected to the smart grid, it is important. “We started with a few initial initiatives, we set up a lot of sub committees and everyone started discussing the agenda. 1. Develop an Indian smart meter, which is very low cost, which doesn’t require human intervention, for someone to go and read the meter; which uses GSM technology, existing mobile technology to send information to the server on billing on a regular basis. Don’t try to reinvent wireless networking, just use the existing networks and systems. We have an effort going on to design our own smart meter – the spec has been released and proposals are ongoing. 2. Secondly, we are going to take what we already know in the area, and we are introducing 6 or 7 trials, from the core of the grid, the edge of the grid and learn from these trials over the next two METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE - 4 | 2013