Smart Grid Interaction:IEEE-SA pinpoints four key challenges for Smart Grid Implentation in India

What are the Smart Grid Implementation Challenges in India?

The Power Industry calls for a complete switch into the next generation through automation. Despite monetary issues, power utilities need to begin with basic automation systems eventually upgrading to the advanced systems.  By analyzing the growing power demand and market competence, this is the only way-forward for the domestic power industry. The implementation of Smart Grid is not going to be an easy task as the Indian power sector poses a number of issues  such as minimizing T&D losses, power theft, inadequate grid infrastructure, low metering efficiency and lack of awareness.

Power theft: Power theft has been one of the major  issues in India. A few ways to help prevent the power theft are the use of overhead lines that are insulated and the LT overhead wires used for distribution of power  could be replaced with insulated cables in order to minimize the theft of energy through hooking. The conventional energy meters could be replaced with digital tamper proof meters and the use of prepaid card is  yet another solution to eradicate theft of energy.

Inadequate Grid Infrastructure: For India to continue along its path of aggressive economic growth, it needs to build a modern, intelligent grid. It is only with a reliable, financially secure Smart Grid that India can provide a stable environment for investments in electric infrastructure - a prerequisite to fixing the fundamental problems with the grid.

Low metering efficiency: The commercial losses are mainly due to low metering efficiency, theft & pilferage. This may be eliminated by improving metering efficiency, proper energy accounting & auditing and improved billing & collection efficiency. Fixing of accountability of the personnel / feeder managers may help considerably in reduction of AT&C loss.

Lack of awareness: The understanding of consumers on how power is delivered to their homes is very minimal.  Before implementing Smart Grid concepts, they should be educated about  the Smart Grids, the benefits of Smart Grid and Smart Grid’s contribution to low carbon economy. Consumers should be made aware about their energy consumption pattern at home, office etc. Utilities need to focus on the overall capabilities of Smart Grids rather than mere implementation of smart meters. Policy makers and regulators must be very clear about the future prospects of Smart Grids.

Smart Grid being an expensive affair, in your view, how should India tackle the financing challenge?

The major challenge for implementing smart Grid in India is availability of funds. Huge investments are required in order to setup a link between the customers and the Smart Grid. The cost of setting up more plants can be deferred drastically. At that point of time, more emphasis will be on overall development of T&D efficiency based on demand response, load control and many other Smart Grid technologies. With timely and detailed information provided by Smart Grids, customers would be encouraged to avoid over use, adopt energy-efficient building standards and invest continually in energy efficient appliances.  To tackle the Smart Grid future, we need to have  compelling Smart Grid consumer products, collaborative vendor partnerships and a willing investment community. The  policy makers and regulators have to implement a robust incentive model frame work  to attract more and more private investments keeping the rate of return, based  on the output generated.  Policy makers and regulators can mitigate this by seeking economies of scale and implementing advanced digital technologies.

What role does IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) have for smart grid development in India?

India is ranked as the third largest market for smart grid investments. Smart grid is a strategic area of focus for IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). Through India Smart Grid Task Force, an initiative of Ministry of Power, India, IEEE-SA have been able to create an initial momentum in this area. The India Smart Grid Task Force is an inter ministerial group and serves as a government focal point for activities related to Smart Grid.

To drive the smart grid development in India, IEEE-SA is dedicated to working with industry professionals, academia and government officials. A Standards Interest Group (SIG) for India has been formed as the first step and it provides a platform for the Indian technical community to participate in global standards development. As one of the world's leading standards development organizations, IEEE-SA acts as a catalyst to bring standards developed in India on a global scale. In addition to standards development, IEEE-SA is focusing on creating awareness and educating about smart grid through various workshops and panel discussions across the country. Efforts are being made in India to create a collaborative environment which will work towards setting global standards wherein deployment of interoperable technologies using the Smart Grid will become a reality faster.

What are the key achievements, actions and initiatives of IEEE-SA in India?

IEEE-SA is actively growing its engagement in India to educate, and promoting Smart Grid Standards interests in the country. With the formation of Standards Interest Group (SIG) for India, IEEE-SA has successfully engaged India and its professional technical community in global standards development including those for the Smart Grid. Outreach programs like Smart Grid workshops deliberating the role of standards and challenges in the Indian context are also being conducted across cities.  IEEE-SA have conducted outreach programs to directly interact with Indian companies in order to focus on the field of power, communications and information technology, to solicit their interest to participate in IEEE standards projects.

Smart Grid Cyber security being a major challenge- what impact, according to you, will Standards have on the Smart Grid Cyber Security?

With the transition to digital electricity infrastructure comes the challenge of communication security and data management; as digital networks are more prone to malicious attacks from software hackers, security becomes the key issue to be addressed.  Smart Grid success depends on the successful handling of two major IT issues, i.e   security & integration and data handling. With an increase in computers and communication networks   the   threat of cyber-attack has also increased invariably. Utilities can use and implement cyber security standards to reduce the venerability to the consumers and provide a higher reliability that their valuable information is being protected. Implementing cyber security measure through the use of standards will help reduce software and implementation cost.

As it is observed, there has been certain degree of backlash and apprehension to Smart Grid implementation in developed countries, particularly in the USA. How do you think a country like India with its vast diversity and political complexities should address these issues?

IEEE-SA is closely working with groups in India, such as the engineering community including vendors, utilities, academics to participate in the standards development and work towards implementing smart grid successfully in India. Also having the technical participant from India provide requirement to ensure standards development groups to understand and identify any possible gaps and address some of India technical issue. Also because of the challenges that India has, a more robust grid will be welcomed.

An interaction with Srikanth Chandrasekaran, Regional Program Manager, IEEE Standards Associations

IEEE Standards Association is now an Associate Member of India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF)

The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), a globally recognized standards setting body within IEEE, today announced that it has become an associate member of the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) promoted by Ministry of Power, Govt. of India. The membership will allow IEEE-SA to attend forum meetings and participate in initiatives driven by the forum. The growing role in the Indian smart grid market is in line with the stated commitment of IEEE-SA to play a macro role in evolving the right ecosystem for effective smart grid implementation here. IEEE-SA will bring its deep standards related knowledge and arising perspectives to the deliberations at the forum and thus make it more holistic.  IEEE-SA has been continually investing over the past two years in creating wider awareness of Smart Grid as a concept and also in bringing multiple stakeholders together to transfer best practices and knowledge from other Smart Grid markets worldwide.

Commenting on the membership, Bill Ash, Strategic Program Manager, IEEE Standards Association, said “We believe ISGF is the apt platform for the facilitating role we have chosen to play and are pleased to be the first association to become a member. The membership marks a significant step forward in our growing engagement with the Indian Smart Grid market. Beyond participation, we will actively contribute and help ISGF achieve the objectives it has set for itself.”

IEEE-SA has launched key standards and guidelines such as the IEEE 2030^® Smart Grid Interoperability Guide, the first such standard that aids interoperability of energy, information and communications technologies; IEEE 1547^TM, the first guide for implementation of Microgrids and the IEEE 1901^TM standard for Broadband over Power Line. More standards are in the pipeline providing among the most comprehensive, globally accepted and validated set of standards that enable better interoperability, connection, communication and management of the various elements that go into a Smart Grid. Currently, IEEE-SA has over 100 standards and standards-in-development spanning the entire Smart Grid spectrum.

About ISGF:

The India Smart Grid Forum is a non-profit voluntary consortium of public and private stakeholders formed with the objective of helping Indian power sector to deploy Smart Grid technologies in an efficient, cost-effective, innovative and scalable manner by bringing together all the key stakeholders and enabling technologies. Visit http://173.201.177.176/isgf/ for more information.

About the IEEE Standards Association:

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stake holder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information visit http://standards.ieee.org/.

About IEEE:

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit it to humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a variety of areas ranging from a aerospace systems, computer sand telecommunications to bio medical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org.

(Press Release)

Massive power blackouts answers why smart grid is the necessity for India

In this modern era when everything runs on electricity, power is a lifeline, without it, life is unthinkable and unsustainable.  This was well experienced by more than 620 million (roughly 10% of the world population) people in India by two successive power blackouts. Trains, metros, traffic lights, and many essential service halted which caused chaos everywhere. People traveling were stranded on railway station, metros, bus stop or on the road, water delivering system stopped, miners were trapped in mines, no Air-conditioning or even fans in this intense heat. With all sort of in-convenience and pains, the financial and productivity loss is yet to be counted, which may be massive when the figures are released. The swath of more than 2000 miles from the border of Pakistan to the border of Myanmar was affected.  By many expert this is probably the world's worst power blackouts, In India where brown-outs are so common in day to day life, many essential services like hospitals, airports police stations, and some businesses were well equipped with backup power to carry out their operations normally.

NY Times reported, "The country which is considered rising economic power this massive electric grid failure was an embarrassing reminder how intractable problems are still plauging India : Inadequate infrastructure, crippling power shortage, and according to many critics and yawning absence of governmental action and leadership."

Power outage affected regions (courtesy: NewYork Times)

What caused two successive power failures in northern and eastern India is yet to be known, which may take several months to figure out, and as per Reuters, it may never be precisely known as it is a complex process. Nonetheless, various media reports and experts revealed that possibly and most likely reason could be overdrawing of power by certain states due to excessive demands which is attributed to high heat and below par monsoon which prompted farmers to run electric motors to water their dying crops. In essence it is a demand-supply issue. Even in normal scenario, India has peak power shortage of 10.2%, according to recent government report.

On one end, the below normal moonsoon and excessive heat created unprecedented scenario that skyrocket demand, whereas on other end the low level of water in dams would have reduced energy output causing huge demand -supply gap. This would have caused failure in one regional location that generated cascading effect in whole transmission and distribution network. According to www.interferencetechnology.com,  the director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, said, “The increasing gap between electricity supply and demand has long been a matter of concern,” 

Though government has taken series of steps to increase the generation capacity, it has lagged behind its own five-year target plans. While, there are more than 300 million people who are yet to receive electricity in India; the demand is increasing day by day due to host of factors; such as higher growth -  which requires more energy due to increase in economic activities and better quality life, climate change - causing unusual weather condition again needs more electricity to maintain normal temperature, Populist politics - offering free electricity, this is causing wastage of energy. In addition to this, almost 30 -50% generated power is lost due to theft and other technical and non-technical factors.

Over the years, the generation capacity has increased, however such complex challenges cannot be handled just by increasing the generation. A variety of urgent measures are needed to overcome the various challenges that are spreading like a wildfire.

Smart Grid is such a solution, which intends tackle all aspect of energy from generation to distribution to utilization. According to Wikipedia, "A smart grid is an electrical grid that uses computers and other technology to gather and act on information, such as information about the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity."

While, the developed economies are adopting smart grid for greater reliability and sustainability, for countries like India it is indeed a necessity. As pointed out by the Samir Sachdev in GovernanceNow,  "Had there been a smart grid, this crisis could have been easily been avoided. A smart grid would have shared the data in real-time which would have helped to instantaneously identify the fault. Smart grid would have also initiated self-healing and would have cordoned the fault line and restricted the impact of the failure." Mr. Sam Pitroda, the chairman of India Smart Grid Task Force (ISGTF) said, "While it may be difficult to guarantee perfect power availability, in the current context, we can at least replace blackouts with brown-outs by providing a basic threshold of power to all households, with which to run at least a few key appliances.” as reported by GovernanceNow.com.

In recent past, the government has taken series of steps to address various issues plauging the energy sector, such as rolling out R-APDRP program in 2004, Setting up India Smart Grid Task Force and India Smart Grid Forum, National Energy Efficiency Mission, however this development are moving at its own pace.

Though Smart Grid may be a panacea for the India's ailing power-grid and energy sector, according to Rajit Gadh, who founded UCLA's Smart Grid Energy Research Center, "India’s first challenge is to make the vast grid easier to monitor, so that engineers can spot the cause of an outage quickly -- even in advance." "When you have less data coming in about the grid, there is less number of things you can do and you are often shooting in the dark," says Gadh as reported by scpr.org.

The other options that Smart Grid offers is establishing MicroGrid - an island of power generation and consumption which can run on its own and may even help the Grid in stress. MicroGrid could be installed at a campus such as the one developed by Cisco and Wipro at Lavasa, or at commercial -scale, something Echelon is working on at high-end residential complex in Hyderabad, reports GreenTechMedia.

Demand Response is another such options which allows to manage peak power by offsetting the demand through pre-negotiated reduction in usage by the group which is ready to shift its needs to off-peak hours. An Indian start-up ecolibrium energy is working on this aspect in Ahmadabad-Gandhinagar region.


Such a massive power outage is a wake-up call for the national government to pursue Smart Grid at a higher priority in order to achieve energy sustainability. 

Smart Grid automation firm ZIV Groups acquired by Crompton Greaves

Crompton Greaves (CG), the flagship company of Avantha Group, which is into business of power equipments and consumer durables has acquired Spanish smart grid automation company ZIV Groups for $185 million (Rs. 1015 Crore). The Mumbai based company is India largest and world's 10th largest transmission and distribution equipment maker company. Since 2005, it has acquired 10 companies to expand its business and market and now operates in 21 countries. With this acquisitions, the company has expanded its product portfolio and now broadly operates in three business segments - power systems, industrial systems, and consumer goods.

With its 11th purchase the ZIV group, CG intends to expand business operation into the emerging sector of Smart Grid. ZIV, which provides digital equipment for grid automation and Advanced Metering Infrastructure has so far installed 1.4 million IEDs for utilities and industries across the world. With operations in more than 50 countries, ZIV Group has significant presence in Brazil, Spain, India, and the USA.

The Smart Grid market is set to reach €90 billion by 2020, which represent important market opportunity for emerging company like Compton Greaves which has global ambition to become leader in its segment. Furthermore, its transmission and distribution offerings may well complement with ZIV's grid automation product that will enable the company to offer complete suit of products to its clients.

According to CEO of ZIV Group Mr Norberto Santiago Elustondo, “We feel very confident about the next phase of our relationship with CG as we know very well our colleagues as a result of the Joint Venture in India. This development will be a catalyst to grow the ZIV activities in new parts of the World Market. By this fusion with CG, together we will get the most from ZIV’s innovative technology”.

About Crompton Greaves:

CG is a pioneering leader in the management and application of electrical energy. CG operates globally, is present in 21 countries and employs more than 12000 employees.  CG provides electrical products, systems and services for Utilities, Power Generation, Industrial and Consumers. The company is organized into three business groups: Power, Industrial and Consumer.  Nearly, two-thirds of its turnover accrues from Product Lines in which it enjoys a leadership position. CG is a part of the US$ 4 Bn Avantha Group. The Avantha Group has an impressive global footprint and comprises 8 successful, diverse entities.

Students at IIT Bombay develop iPDC an Open Source tool for Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS)

The continuous increasing demand for power along with integration of distributed power sources such as micro-grid and renewable energy into the ever expanding electric grid has increased the complexities of managing the reliability of the power grid. Frequent blackouts and brown-outs continuously remind us the need for better electric grid that provide intelligent and automated system for online monitoring and proper control and protection of the Grid.The Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), which is also know as Synchrophasor, is the key component of the Wide Area Monitoring and Control System (WAMCS). The Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS) is primarily used for managing the grid reliability by continuously monitoring the status of the grid through PMU deployed at specific location in the transmission network. PMUs through  GPS provide synchronized time based voltage and current Phasor measurement at sub-second rate, so that system operators and planners can continuously monitor grid status allowing them to manage power quality. Thus, WAMCS is considered to be an important element for transitioning current power grid into futuristic Smart Grid. 

Source: www.pacw.org

The data generated at sub-second level through multitude of PMUs require proper storage and management for which Phasor Data Concentrator widely known as PDCs are used. Though, there are various propriety systems, there isn't any open-source tool which can be used by the students, industry, and research community. One such system has been developed by IIT Bombay students Nitesh Pandit and Kedar Khandeparkar, which is known as iPDC.  The objective of iPDC project is to create an IEEE C37.118 Synchrophasor standardized Phasor Data Concentrator and PMU Simulator, on which research students and others can develop and test their algorithms and applications. The purpose of iPDC released as a Free Software to its availability for users without any restriction regarding its usage and modification. And in future get the contribution from users and developers all around the world.

Industrial Use:

iPDC is a Phasor Data Concentrator with basic functionalities. iPDC internally performing the time sequencing, wait time, generating of combined data frames for each UTC time and putting the measurements into database. It currently not having any visualization application for measurements, but it is possible to integrate the any existing visualization application to the iPDC database or direct receives combined data frames from iPDC over IP. It could also be used for testing for protocol, and working of any PMU.

Currently, there are not readily available ways to test the operation of PDCs. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to have enough PMUs to max out the PDC and you can't cause a real PMU to operate incorrectly to test the response of a PDC. Even most commercial manufacturers don't have programmable PMU Simulators, so iPDC's PMU Simulator allows anyone to test PDCs. Virginia Tech University M.S. Student and others have used the PMU Simulator and perform the testing for couple of commercial PDCs. PMU Simulator is successfully tested with PMU Connection Tester.

What is iPDC?

iPDC is a free Phasor Data Concentrator that collects data from Phasor Measurement Units, iPDC's and other PDC that are IEEEC37.118 standard compliant. It time aligns and combines the received data into frames as per IEEEC37.118 and sends to other iPDCs. It also has the feature to archive received data in the MySQL database on local disk or remote machine disk. A friendly graphical user interface will enable a user to add or remove new devices (PMU/iPDC) and also send different command frames to the devices from which the data is being received. Software is built to be working on Linux platform

Phasor Data Concentrators (PDUs) (Source: http://www.intechopen.com)

iPDC Features:

iPDC is compliant with IEEE C37.118 Synchrophasor standard.

iPDC capable of receiving the data from PMU and PDC/iPDC.

iPDC would generate combined data frame by performing time aligning, sorting for each timestamps.

iPDC able to send data frames to other iPDC's as well as other applications.

iPDC directs the received data frames to MySQL database server for storage.

The iPDC-database server may run on the local or remote machine.

iPDC has option to connect via TCP or UDP.

iPDC has a file structure, that stores all the connection and CFG details as being iPDC status.

iPDC Setup File can be reload at restarting of iPDC.

iPDC is a multi-threaded application, hence the performance is optimistic.

iPDC has user friendly Graphical Interface.

iPDC is built on free and open source technologies.

What is PMU Simulator?

PMU Simulator would act as a server and bind port for UDP or TCP communication protocol. It would be listening for UDP connections on UDPPORT or for TCP connections on TCPPORT. The PMU Simulator receives the command frames from PDC and sends the configuration frame and data frames to PDC. Both the communicating peers authenticate each other through ID Code.

PMU Simulator Features

PMU Simulator is compliant with IEEE C37.118 and successfully tested with the PMU Connection Tester.

PMU Simulator is configurable for both TCP and UDP communication protocols.

PMU Simulator has option to read the PMU measurements from the csv file and generate Data Frames.

PMU Simulator has options to introduce different errors in STAT Word at run time.

With single installation multiple PMU simulators can be run on a single machine simultaneously.

PMU Simulator could be configurable for both 50 & 60 Hz of frequency system.

It also has the configuration modification option like add/remove phasor channels at run time.

PMU Simulator is a multi-process and multi-threaded application, hence the performance is optimistic.

PMU Simulator has user friendly Graphical User Interface.

PMU Simulator is built on free and open source technologies.

Project websites:

http://ipdc.codeplex.com/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/iitbpdc/

Developers
Nitesh Pandit, Kedar Khandeparkar




Contributors: Nitesh Pandit, Kedar Khandeparkar

Smart Grids India 2012: Upcoming Smart Grid Conference in India

With India rapidly becoming a hotspot for a flourishing smart grids industry, and the implementation of revolutionary pilot projects, I wanted to inform you about the upcoming Smart Grids India 2012, taking place at Hilton Mumbai International Airport, Mumbai, from 28-29 June. 

This strategic event is the only platform where you can meet all the key innovators among the service providers within the industry, such as System Integrators, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) companies, manufacturers of smart meters and cutting-edge technology suppliers!

Witness strategic case studies being discussed by industry experts including: 

Reji Kumar Pillai, President, Indian Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) and Managing Director, Magnetar Venture

Y K Sehgal, Executive Director, Smart Grids, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL)

S K Negi, Managing Director, Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO)

Dr Pramod Deo, Chairman, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)

NSrivastava, Managing Director, Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Limited (UGVCL)

Ajoy Rajani, Vice President, Reliance Infrastructure 

Satya Gupta, Additional General Manager, IT, TATA Power Delhi Distribution Limited

Click here to view the full list of speakers!

Smart Grids India 2012 will provide you with strategic insights into the seamless integration of digital solutions with the grid, the implementation of cost-effective technology in the network and the integration of tailor-made software solutions with renewable and non-renewable sources of energy amongst other key concerns of the industry.

Click here for the full agenda!

So block your diary, and attend this business-critical conference to gain access to all the vital technology insights you need to drive your smart grid projects to commercial success! Also, be a part of an exclusive Speed Networking session with industry stalwarts! With all this, Smart Grids India 2012 really is an opportunity not to be missed! 

(Press Release)

IEEE 802.11™ Expanded to Support Faster, Higher-quality, Simpler Wireless LAN Communication in More Environments

IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced the publication of IEEE 802.11™-2012, which defines the technology for the world’s premier wireless local area network (LAN) products.

The new IEEE 802.11-2012 revision has been expanded significantly by supporting devices and networks that are faster, more secure, while offering improved Quality of Service and, improved cellular network hand-off. IEEE 802.11 standards, often referred to as “Wi-Fi^®,”already underpin wireless networking applications around the world, such as wireless access to the Internet from offices, homes, airports, hotels, restaurants, trains and aircraft around the world. The standard’s relevance continues to expand with the emergence of new applications, such as the smart grid, which augments the facility for electricity generation, distribution, delivery and consumption with a two-way, end-to-end network for communications and control.

“IEEE 802.11 is obviously a standard of tremendous impact for developers and users of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, service providers, the global smart-grid community, manufacturers, healthcare workers and retail service providers around the world,” said Phil Solis, research director with ABI Research. “In the 15years since the standard’s original publication, we’ve seen wireless networking evolve from a curiosity and nice-to-have capability to a must-have feature for doing business in a wide range of industries around the world. It’s a capability that today is expected to be embedded in almost any communications device, and it’s a service that’s expected to be available to employees and customers almost anywhere in the world.”

IEEE 802.11defines one MAC and several PHY specifications for wireless connectivity for fixed, portable and mobile stations. IEEE 802.11-2012 is the fourth revision of the standard to be released since its initial publication in 1997. In addition to incorporating various technical updates and enhancements, IEEE 802.11-2012 consolidates 10 amendments to the base standard that were approved since IEEE 802.11’s last full revision, in 2007. IEEE 802.11n™, for example, defined MAC and PHY modifications to enable much higher throughputs, with a maximum of 600Mb/s; other amendments that have been incorporated into IEEE 802.11-2012 addressed direct-link setup, “fast roam,”radio resource measurement, operation in the 3650-3700MHz band, vehicular environments, mesh networking, security, broadcast/multicast and unicast data delivery, interworking with external networks and network management.

“The new IEEE 802.11 release is the product of an evolutionary process that has played out over five years and drawn on the expertise and efforts of hundreds of participants worldwide. More than 300 voters from a sweeping cross-section of global industry contributed to the new standard, which has roughly doubled in size since its last published revision,” said Bruce Kraemer, chair of the IEEE 802.11 working group. “Every day, about two million products that contain IEEE 802.11-based technology for wireless communications are shipped around the world. Continuous enhancement of the standard has helped drive technical innovation and global market growth. And work on the next generation of IEEE 802.11 already has commenced with a variety of project goals including extensions that will increase the data rate by a factor of 10, improve audio/video delivery, increase range and decrease power consumption.”

(Press Release)

Mera Gao MicroGrid Power among the 10 emerging tech list of Technology Review

Electricity, which is a basic necessity in developed world is a luxury to millions of Indian living in rural areas. Energy Scenario in India is complex, on one hand close to 400 million mostly rural residents do not have access to power, on the other hand where power is available, almost 50% generated energy is lost duet to poor electrical infrastructure and power theft. At the same time, the economy is growing at 7-8% per year, and the demand for energy is skyrocketing for all practical purposes. Due to acute energy shortage, global climate issues, and scarce resources India cannot pursue traditional model for energy generation and distribution.

The country has to adopt new model such  as distributed generation or MicroGrid, where sustainable energy is generated and distributed in local area. Nowhere is so practical and sustainable than rural India, where energy demand is up-to basic needs like lighting bulbs, cooking, or charging cellphones. Such needs, which are at present met by expensive and/or polluting fuel like Kerosene and Woods, provide untapped market for clean tech companies, especially, when government is facilitating this opportunities through National Solar Mission.

One such company known as "Mera Gao MicroGrid Power (MGP)", which serves this "Bottom of Pyramid " market was recently selected for its unique MicroGrid technology as one of the 10 emerging technology of 2012 by the Technology Review.  Mera Gao Power provides seven hours of electricity to per household that powers two LED light bulb and a mobile charging station through its Solar MicroGrid for the cost of $0.50 per week. Founded by two US born entrepreneurs, Nikhil Jaisinghani and Brain Shaad, It primarily operates in Uttar Prades (UP), which is one of the poorer state in India where shortage of electricity is so acute. According to Technology Review, the falling cost of LED and Solar panels has made it possible to operate MicroGrid that provides services for which the poor can afford. The MeraGaoPower uses just four solar panel to supply electricity to 100 households at the total cost of $2500. The grid uses 24 volt DC throughout, which allows to use aluminum wiring instead of the expensive copper wire. To effectively minimize the loss of energy, the village is carefully mapped before installation for efficient arrangement of distribution lines.

MGP Micro-Grid model (source www.meragaopower.com)

                                 

According to Jaysinghani, the mapping and design is their biggest innovation. The company, which deployed the first commercial micro-grid in last summer, is now supplying power to eight more villages and has plan to scale upto 50 villages by end of this year. For which, it has received $300,000 grant from USAID, however,  according to guardian, the founders have vision to supply micro-grid based power to 100,000 household by 2016 requiring many more investment in the future. The Distributed Energy Generation (DER) is $2 billion potential market in India considering 114 million people spend $75 for such services per month, according to World Resource Institute (WRI),a Washington DC based think tank.

For Villagers, who don't have access to grid electricity, this means cheap quality power at home and relief from kerosene, which is pollutant and health hazard, for which, often they have to pay expensive price due to black marketing.  The mobile charging station provides another relief from traveling long distance for the sake of charging phone and paying expensive price. According to Guardian report,  for the villagers it is just more than light, it is an opportunity to do more after the dark. The report describe what villagers feels in their own words. 

"I wanted this light straight away, as it enables me to cook after dark," said Muni-devi, a grandmother from the village of Kaharanpura who makes samosas to sell at the local market. "With longer hours to work, I can earn more for my family each day."

Santram Pal, a father of four from the neighboring village of Chuck, was exuberant, too. "I'm very happy with the lights," he said. "Now my children can study at night and my house won't go so black inside from the smoke. Thieves won't come either."

Two Smart Grid pilots to be implemented with USTDA grant

The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) recently announced two grants to support U.S business development in clean energy Infrastructure development. Henry Steingass, the regional director of USTDA signed the two agreement at the luncheon hosted by the U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson. "India has ambitious energy infrastructure development goals," stated Steingass. "We are pleased to join this trade mission to support those goals, and to help open the market for U.S. clean energy technologies, which are among the best in the world."

The grants are awarded to two private sector companies namely, Azure Power and CESC LTD. The solar power developer, Azure Power, will be given the first grant to carry out feasibility study for rural solar micro-grid that will bring electricity to remote villages which are off the grid. Azure power aims to develop 100 such micro-grid, which will be based on 2-3 acre of land with little or no connection to the existing electric grid. The second grant will be given to another private company CESC Ltd., which supplies  electricity to 2.5 million people in Kolkata. It will help CESC carry out feasibility study for implementing Smart Grid technologies to their entire electricity distribution system. The study will develop Smart Grid pilot project as well as broad implementation guidelines, which is top priority for CESC as it will help improve energy efficiency and reliability to their customer base. 

According to announcement, these projects are results of the joint commitment made by President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under the agreement of Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE). Apart from substantial benefit to India's clean energy mission, the successful implementation of this project has opportunities worth $250 million for the US companies. 

According to the press release, "The opportunity to conduct the Azure Power and CESC feasibility studies will be competed on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website. A link to the FBO announcements will be posted on USTDA's website at www.ustda.gov. Interested U.S. firms should submit proposals according to the instructions in the FBO announcement". 

Announcement

Echelon implements Microgrid in India and South Africa

Microgrid, which is also known as distributed generation, is part of the overall Smart Grid technologies. It generates energy primarily using renewable sources like Solar, Wind, Biogas, and Fuel cells. The generated energy is supplied to the local area and may or may not be connected to the main grid depending on its Geo-location. It has all the function of the larger grid, generation, transmission, and distribution, but supplies energy to only limited area, hence it is called micro-grid. Nonetheless, it has variety of advantages over the larger grid;  power loss over the transmission and distribution is very low as the generation is located closer to the consumption area, capital cost is low, can be implemented without any changes to local geography or demographic. Additionally, it reduces carbon emission and thus supports sustainable livelihood.

Echelon, which is one of the leading Smart Grid technology company,  has deployed two microgirds one in India and another in South Africa. According to Echelon press release, "The model micro grid deployments are at Palm Meadows in Hyderabad, India, and Clearwater Mall in Johannesburg, South Africa. Palm Meadows is an 86-acre integrated gated community with 335 homes and residential services. Clearwater Mall in Johannesburg is a retail building with more than 240 stores. Such micro grids are likely to be a best practice in emerging countries grappling with intermittent power supply, and are also applicable in environmentally conscious countries that are aggressively incorporating renewable and intermittent energy sources into the distribution network."

"Smart micro grid an ideal way to integrate local generation at the community level and allow for customer participation in the electricity enterprise," said Michael Anderson, senior vice president of Worldwide Markets for Echelon. "Micro grids sit at the edge of the smart grid and provide real-time analysis, decision making and control. The Palm Meadows and Clearwater Mall deployments are great examples of how Echelon's commitment to leading the worldwide transformation of the electricity grid into an energy control network can foster market innovation. The concepts demonstrated in India and South Africa can be replicated worldwide to improve power reliability and to integrate energy efficiency solutions as well as renewable generation."

The Microgrid market is set to grow 164%  between 2011 and 2017 with installed capacity increasing from 620 MW to 1.6 GW according to cleantech market intelligence firm Pike Research. There is growing interest across the world especially among educational, research, commercial, healthcare, and industrial campuses. The campus Microgrid market will reach upto $777 million by year 2017. 

Palm Meadows, India

The Palm Meadows community ties into the grid at a dedicated substation and sources energy in bulk from the utility. The community also runs diesel generators and will incorporate solar generation in the future. Residences within the community are equipped with Echelon smart meters that connect into data concentrators at distribution transformers and feed near real-time usage information to Echelon's Networked Energy Systems (NES) system software. Echelon partner Grene Robotics' Skynet management application automatically turns on local generation if utility-delivered power is inadequate. The Skynet software interfaces with the NES system software and creates a bill for the customer that reflects the customers' actual use of lower cost grid power and more expensive locally generated power. Customers have the option of reducing usage at times when the more expensive energy is being supplied. The Palm Meadows micro grid is providing reliable service even during frequent utility grid outages and enabling the customer to make intelligent trade-offs between comfort and cost. 

"When you flip that light switch, turn your television on, or boot up your computer, you expect power," said Kiran Penmatcha, CEO of Grene Robotics. "Like a national power grid, the Palm Meadows micro grid manages generation, distribution, and the regulation of the flow of electricity to its households. We are pleased to have helped implement a proven, open and multi-application energy control infrastructure that enables Palm Meadows to become distributors of energy within their community. Today, the community is evaluating the integration of solar generated electricity for the future. Tomorrow, the community may look to add other applications, such as outdoor lighting control on the same infrastructure."

The US, China, India and seven others to account for 80% of the Smart Grid Investment

According to the latest report released by Innovation Observatory, 80% of the Smart Grid Investment will be concentrated in 10 countries. It further reveals that Utilities across the world are going to spend more than $378 billion by 2030, however majority of this spending will be in the US, China, India, the Japan, Germany, Brazil, the UK, France, Spain, and South Korea. The US, which will lead the smart grid investment for next 5 (till 2016)  years is going to spend $60 billion on intelligent Smart Grid by 2030. The $60 billion investment includes communication infrastructure, grid automation, system integration, IT System and hardware, home area network, and smart meters. 

The world's most populous and the fastest growing country, China, which plans to roll-out 360 million smart meters by 2030 is going to account 25% of the all the global investment. According to report, China is going to spend close to $99 billion by that time and will overtake the US as the leading Smart Grid country by 2016. The other major countries in the list include emerging economies India and Brazil, which have plans to install over 130 million and 63 million smart meters. 

These are the countries where major action for business, technology, innovation, and skills will happen. 

Click this link to access the details of the report

India to be third largest smart grid market after China and the US

IEEE- Standards Association (IEEE -SA), the standards development body of IEEE predicts that India is set to become the third largest smart grid market in the world. IEEE-SA is looking forward to collaborate with Indian academics, standards bodies, experts, industry leaders, and government to develop India-specific standards to meets it unique and specific needs. “Without proper standards, the realization of smart grid would be difficult. IEEE-SA is investing in creating awareness and bringing multiple stakeholders together to transfer best practices and knowledge from Smart Grid markets and perspectives,” Mr Srikanth Chandrasekaran, Chairperson of IEEE-SA India SIG (Standards Interest Group), said. “IEEE-SA has taken a lead role in the identification and development of standards for the smart grid.” Earlier this year,IEEE-SA launched Smart Grid Interoperability standards project in India  under the India Standards Interest Group, which will closely work with their global parent group IEEE P2030 to introduce the Interoperability standards enabling faster Smart Grid Implementation.

According to recent ZPRYME report, Indian smart grid market is going to reach $1.9 billion by 2015 growing at CAGR rate of 16.3%. During the initial years, the smart grid growth may be normal, however it is set to explode towards the end of the decade as India plans to invest $900 billion in electrical infrastructure by 2020. During the same period, India plans to install 20,000 MW of solar power. The successful integration of various power sources and efficient utilization of this energy can only happen through smart intelligent grid. To meet these objectives, the country plans to install 130 million smart meters by 2021 providing huge opportunity for smart grid companies.

International Smart Grid Leaders to Gather at GridWeek Asia

Government and Smart Grid industry leaders from both India and the U.S. will gather at GridWeek Asia Jan. 16-18, 2012 in Mumbai, India to cover topics ranging from standards and interoperability to smart meters and consumer engagement in a content-rich agenda featuring keynote addresses, roundtable discussions, and breakout sessions.

No other event in the region will deliver such an esteemed group of international technology companies, standards organizations, government entities, and utilities.

Feathured speakers include:

George Arnold Suresh Prabhu Eric Dresselhuys R.N. Nayak

P Uma Shankar Bernard Delpech Mark Gabriel Reji Kumar

Sam Pitroda Chris Hickman Narendra Singh Sodha Ronald Binz

Share Best Practices - Insights from Robust Agenda and Top Speakers

Only the combination of GridWeek Asia and ELECRAMA 2012 offers the opportunity to learn from, and network with, these global Smart Grid leaders in two days of conference and exhibition.
This content-rich conference will cover critical topics, including:

• Building Smart Grid capabilities in a developing region;
• Supplying electricity to meet rapidly increasing demand;
• Driving efficiency and demand response programs;
• Integrating renewable power;
• Facilitating economic and open trade -- understanding opportunities to export Indian and Asian Smart Grid solutions to other parts of the world;
• And more. 

For more details check the GridWeek Asia webpage

The Smart Meters market to be worth $49 billion in emerging economies

The growth of smart meters is gaining momentum across the world. The developed economies, the USA, Germany, Japan, Canada, the UK, France, and Italy are leading the smart meters growth worldwide, however, the next stage growth is going to come from emerging economies like countries from Eastern Europe, North Africa, Middle East, South Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. The recent report from Northeast group covers 25 such emerging countries where Smart Meters is going to become worth $27 to $49 billion markets in the coming decade. 

"Smart grid offers emerging markets a number of potential benefits. Countries can improve overall electric utility reliability, reduce electricity theft rates, manage surging demand and incorporate new sources of renewable energy. Modernizing the electricity infrastructure will be increasingly important as these economies grow quickly over the next several years. The 25 countries in the study are forecast to see average annual GDP growth of 4.3% over the next five years, compared with 1.7% in the developed world," according to Northeast Group, LLC

The 11 of the 25 countries, which includes Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Mexico, Hungary, Poland Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Arab Emirates, are well-positioned to implement smart meters deployment in next 1-3 years. Brazil, which is set to implement almost 65 million smart meters over  the next decade will be the biggest growth market among all the studied countries. India and China are not studied in this report. 

Key questions addressed in this report:

• Which emerging market countries have the most developed smart grid regulatory frameworks?
• Which emerging market countries have the potential to reap the most direct benefits from smart meter deployments?
• Which international and local vendors are best placed to take advantage of growth in emerging markets smart grid?
• How will regional bodies such as the EU, ASEAN, and GCC expedite deployments?
• What other smart grid projects such as distribution automation, substation automation and home energy management are also evolving?

Smart Grid in Asia Pacific: Potential,Opportunities, and Growth

Asia-Pacific is consider one of the most dynamic and the fastest growing region in the world. With over quarter of the world population located in this part, and most of the countries still in development stages, there is huge growth potential in almost all segments. The hyper- growth is fueling the demand for more energy, which in turn is creating significant market opportunities for clean-tech market. According recent report, published by the leading clean tech market intelligence firm PikeResearch, Smart Grid investment in Asia Pacific is set to reach $171.3 billion by 2017. The report notes that for every country the drivers for Smart Grid implementation are significantly different.

According to senior analyst, Andy Bai, "Chinese market players believe that the construction of a smart grid is a key part of economic growth and enhancing the ability to optimize energy allocation, including the integration of new generation capacity from both renewable and fossil fuel sources.  Japan’s electric utilities have been investing huge amounts of capital in power infrastructure, resulting in advanced capabilities in transmission infrastructure and power delivery services; however, the tragic March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and resulting Fukushima nuclear accident are likely to redefine not only Japan’s smart grid planning, but perhaps the direction of the nation’s utility industry.  Korea seeks to leverage its technology leadership in the IT and communications space to form an advanced smart grid infrastructure within the country, as well as an opportunity to export smart grid technologies around the world.  Significant and influential smart grid projects are also underway in Australia, India, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.” The analyst further adds, the transmission upgrades, Distribution Automation, and Advanced Metering Infrastructure will capture majority of the market with each segment having share of 54%, 18%, and 15% respectively". 

The report provides in-depth analysis for market drivers, business models and applications, technology issues,  and government policy within Asia-Pacific Region. The study covers detailed forecast by application for China, India, Korea, Australia, Japan, and the ASEAN region. Overall, the study addresses following key questions. 

Key Questions Addressed

• What are the key market drivers for smart grid development in each Asia Pacific market?
• Which business models are being employed for APAC smart grid deployments? How are these similar to other models found around the world, and how do they differ?
• Who are the key industry players influencing the development of APAC smart grid initiatives? Are there opportunities for additional participants to enter the market?
• For each country, what is the size of the market opportunity within each smart grid application segment?
• What are the key technology issues facing smart grid industry players in each market?

What is In Store for Grids?

23 billion dollars! This will be the estimated cost of electricity distribution losses in India by 2014. The improvements that our electricity distribution grids need to put in — administrative and technological— cannot be underestimated. Elsewhere on our grids, problems like congestion persist. As the appetite of the country to consume more electricity increases and the trend for interstate open access increases, there will be increased pressure on our grid infrastructure in future.

There will be new challenges to which the electricity grids in future will have to live up. India aspires to generate a sixth of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Major renewable energy sources like wind power generates infirm power and therefore introduces variations in the electricity grid. Currently, since the generation of electricity from renewable sources, primarily wind energy is very low- around 5 per cent therefore it poses no challenge. But in future when this share increases, it will gradually start posing challenges of grid management.

And I must also mention some other possible scenarios which can further pose more challenges to our grid infrastructure- Electric Cars. If electric cars do penetrate sizably by the end of the next decade they will require our grid to be even smarter. India has announced policy mission for electric cars All these challenges not only require more investments into our electricity grid, to add more capacity but more importantly we need to make this capacity Smart grid is currently a term used to describe a number of new features that are being envisaged in future grids to cope up with the various future challenges.Yet it is important to see in one new interesting way in which the grids of future may transform- energy storage. The grids currently do not store energy through their networks. Power storage currently is a very costly option and it makes little sense for power storage, as both the losses involved in the power storage and the capital cost of power storage is significant But can the bets that are currently placed on innovations in power storage technology change that? If breakthrough storage technologies emerge then yes and the dice is probably loaded for that outcome.A majority of cleantech industry believes that battery is perhaps the most important opportunity area based on a recent survey. From thin film batteries next generation batteries. All those early signs of progress are out there already. In that case the grids of future will not only transmit power but they will also store power intermittently or provide extensive interface to power storage devices. Advances in the energy storage technology will advance many other clean technologies like electric vehicles and even allow renewable energy sources to supply energy more reliably. But what that will do to our grid is even more exciting. It is very likely that new grid management technologies that store power within the distribution networks will come up. This will allow distribution companies great flexibility in power distribution. For example it is possible that distribution companies may draw power during the afternoon slot and store the power within their distribution grid... .. Continue

Courtesy : Yash Saxena (www.businessworld.in)