India, in the past few decades, has witnessed significant changes in the generation and network technology deployment, and the volume and use of electricity in the country coupled with changes in market and regulatory structures governing its power sector. This transformation has largely been successfully managed, but ageing infrastructure is raising concerns that further changes could affect system stability, reliability and security. Thus, there is a need for continued investment to maintain reliability and quality of system and electricity supply.
In future, as demand grows and its pattern changes (with socio-economic growth) and distributed generation becomes more widespread in the country, ageing distribution and transmission infrastructure would need to be replaced and updated, and new technologies would need to be deployed. This coupled with the growing challenges of environmental depletion, fast depleting conventional sources of energy and more recently the growing challenge of climate change are necessitating the adoption of an integrated approach for both demand and supply side in the power sector.
On the supply side, there is a drive towards sustainable, low-carbon electricity generation using renewable sources and hydrocarbon substitution using biofuels and biogas technologies. On the demand side, consumers are increasingly seeking more information and control over their consumption. The existing distribution system is primarily designed for one-way flow of electricity with limited information to consumers about the patterns of electricity use.
These supply and demand side changes with growing emphasis on distributed clean power require a fundamental change in the design of the grid. The current grid network in the country is able to only accommodate the supply of electricity generated through a growing number of medium to large-scale renewable energy projects, but the choice to procure green power is very limited for all categories of consumers. To avoid stalling progress towards a sustainable and low-carbon future, India can decide to make necessary investment in new grid designs and opt for smart grid technology to improve the power grid and distribution system.
Smart grid technologies provide a range of solutions that can be tailored to the specific needs of each region. India is in a unique position as it is still building its most of its electrical infrastructure and thus will be able to leverage the maximum benefits of smart grids. Smart grids will not just help reduce theft, but also improve the network efficiency, consumer efficiency, and will be able to utilise dispersed energy resources like wind and solar to its optimum capacity. The country has 173,626 MW of installed capacity and is going to add approximately 80,000 MW in next five years representing over $200 billion opportunity in building energy infrastructure. Additionally, the National Solar Mission is going to add another 20,000 MW of solar energy in next 10 years.
Recently the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has initiated work on designing a programme for smart grids. The programme if implemented in the near future will help in modernisation of the transmission and distribution system through the integration of new information technologies that allow for new uses of the electric grid, both in operations and through new customer side applications.
Such a programme will also benefit the utilities through improvements in grid reliability by reducing the frequency and duration of power outages and the number of power quality disturbances, including reducing the probability of regional blackouts. The price of electricity can be reduced through increased interaction of the demand side of the market (consumers) with the supply side (suppliers).
Finally, smart grids will promote the use of green power leading to reduced amount of GHG emissions in the country. Promoting a more even deployment of renewable energy sources, and allowing access to more environmentally-friendly electricity generation will prove to be a win-win situation for managing both socio-economic and environmental challenges of the country.
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