SMART GRID MARKET ANALYSIS: INDIA

TEAM MEMBERS:
Muskan Agarwal(16BEE0143)
Leander pillai(16BEE0336)
Madhumitha(16BEE0348)

Introduction
India has one of the fastest growing economies globally with its GDP growing on an annual
average of 6 percent between 2008-2017. With this India’s per capita electricity consumption has
also grown from 91KWh in 1971 to 1010 KWh in 2015[1]. In order to provide reliable and
quality energy to all, Indian power distribution sector has seen a number of initiatives and smart
grid is a key tool to achieve this goal. Presently most of the supply is met using coal and oil but
in 2015 India led a alliance of developing 175GW renewable energy capacity by 2022 with
100GW of solar energy[1]. In past years the formation of forums like ‘Indian Smart Grid
Forum’ and forces like ‘Smart Grid Task Force’ gives an indication of developing a more
efficient Smart Grid in India.

Existing Grid system in India

A lot of functionalities and technology were adopted for smart grids in India some of them are:

1. Advanced Meter Infrastructure – It is the communication infrastructure[2] of the grid that

is it allows bi-directional flow between utility centers and consumers to transfer
information and thus helping in making billing system virtual and transparent. It is done
using the installed smart meters at costumer locations and thus also preventing bad debts
etc.
2. Peak Load Management:- This approach is necessary as it helps in avoiding tripping of
feeders for load shedding and manage it by either curtailing loads or price incentives
using Time of use pricing which is done by smart meters. It is done using inputs from
SCADA and run different algorithms based on different parameters.[3]
3. Distributed Generation:- Using renewable resources in combination with supply from
central station to meet the power demands. Renewable resources include wind,
photovoltaic, solar etc. It benefits customers in pricing management and helps in not
 relieving pressure from central stations in peak hours and also making it more
environments friendly.
4. Micro-grids :- It ensures reliable and quality electric power to the customers.A Micro-
grid is an integrated energy and communication system consisting of interconnected
loads and Distributed Energy Resources (DER), which mainly operates in standalone
mode or in parallel with the grid (macro grid) in case of emergency.

Gap Analysis
The smart grid vision for the future must be compared first with the present-scenario to identify
the gaps intechnology,business processes and customer acceptance[4]. A smart grid road map is
developed as a result of the gap analysis which can be seen as:

Phase-1 Phase-2 Phase-3 Phase-4

Technology 1. Automated 1. Time of 1. Peak 4. Advanced
Metering use billing Load Metering
2. Data using manage Infrastructur
acquisition smart ment e
3. Geographic meters 2. Transpa 5. Distributed
al 2. Distributio rent Energy
information n billing generations
system Managem cycles
ent 3. Power
systems theft
Consumer Engagement Easy Active
Acceptance Programs for communication participation of
customer awareness between consumers
authorities and
user friendly
systems for their
ease

LAWS AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO SMART GRID

Regulations and laws help in smooth progress of the proposed projects. Regulatory decisions
impact the overall savings and improvements due to Smart Grid investments. Implementation of
smart grid project comes under the legal limits of the state governments [90% of the funding
comes from state government]. The electricity regulation committee of the state government
forms the rules and regulations of the project. Regulations involve the listing down the
specifications needed, payment terms, bid proposal, bid assessment. Most of the smart gird
projects are carried out by private contractors.
Laying out specification:
This stage involves the identification of the problem encountered by the customers, and benefits
of solving it. The money spent and return are calculated.

1. Payment terms:

Typically, these terms specify the period allowed to the government to pay off the amount due.
The government usually fixes checkpoints in progress implementation and once the contractor
reaches the checkpoint a certain amount of money due is paid to the contractor.
2. Bid proposal:
This involves laying down the regulations for bidder qualification criteria. Prequalification will
be based on meeting all the following minimum pass/fail criteria regarding the Bidder's general
and particular experience, personnel and equipment capabilities, and financial position.
3. Bid assessment:
Technical compliance, price quoted, products used, time period requirement quoted are assessed
during this stage. An assessment matrix is made and the bidders are compared according to the
above criteria.

National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM):

National smart grid mission has been establishes by government of Indi in March 2015 to
accelerate Smart grid deployment in India[8]. A team has been dedicated for the mission and is
operational since January 2016. It helps in planning and monitor the policies related to smart grid
in the country.

The Highlights of the mission can be seen below:

•A blueprint explaining the programs and projects in each state has been developed.

•In order to successfully implement the projects and monitor them ,coordination with state
government and other stakeholders has been made.

• NSGM will coordinate development of standards, technically feasible and economically

sustainable business models relevant to the Indian context.

Smart Grid Pilot Projects in India[9]:

• These projects will be part funded by MoP (50% project cost as grant from GoI). Combined
cost of these projects are about US$ 80 million

• These projects will be in execution mode early 2014 – presently in RFP stage
• Most projects involve 20,000 or more customers

• Many large utilities (in large states) could not apply for the first set of projects. So another set
of larger and more integrated projects will be formulated soon

• Last mile connectivity is the major challenge in smart grid applications – and these field trials
to determine the most appropriate communication solutions

Challenges and issues of smart grid implementation

 Inadequacies in grid infrastructure:

The existing infrastructure of the grids has problems like several electric parts connections to the
national grid is not even this is because of large wind and solar plants which will require
installation of entire infrastructure. So the existing grid is not adequate to incorporate new
techniques like distributed generation etc to achieve smart grid.

 Cyber security:

Since smart grid requires connection to network, with that we are exposing our system to
numerous insecurities. So recognizing and eliminating these loopholes before security breach is a
challenge. There are three objectives of cyber Securities:[5]
1. Availability – Timely access to database and other information
2. Integrity – Protection against destruction of information
3. Confidentiality – Securing information from unauthorized access.

 Storage concerns:
Smart grid focuses on using renewable resources for power generation and also distributed
power generation. Now since the power generation from renewable is not uniform so we need
back-up storage to keep the supply continuous. The most common storage devices like batteries
have very low life about 4-5 years and also shortage of the raw materials for these batteries can
be a issue.

 Data management:
The main advantage of smart grid is data analysis which enables in predicting any damage or
fault by analyzing the data from meters, sensors and controllers[5]. This big data can be utilized
for forecasting demands, generation and price. But the data from the devices are difficult to
collect and store and handling it is a big challenge.

 Communication issues:
For deploying smart grid communication in the network is necessary and a lot of technologies in
this area have been developed like GSM, GPRS, Zigbee etc. But each of these tech lacks the fool
proof solution like GSM and GPRS has more range but lacks in data rates similarly Zigbee is
limited with the range. Optical fiber is fast and secure but it is expensive because of the
installation and maintenance costs.

 Stability concerns:
Since smart grid focuses on using renewable resources there is always some stability issues in
power generated by these resources and needs a back-up power source to work continuously.

 High capital investment:

Smart grid is also useful in economical perspectives but that is realized on a long-term basis and
initial investment involved is really high which makes people reluctant in adopting this tech.
Hence some awareness programs should be organized to make people aware of the whole model
and also merger with other departments would help the government with initial burden.

 Lack of awareness:

As already said in the earlier point to make people accept Smart grid educating them is really
important. Consumers must be taught about its economical and environmental benefits and a
comparison between present day and future scenario would help them in acceptance.

CONCLUSION:
In this document the present scenario of Electric Grid in India, the Laws and policies for the
smart grid initiation and analyse the key challenges in implementing the Smart Grid concept in
India has been shown. Smart Grid has already been adopted in most of the developed countries
and India is still lagging behind. Today their main focus is on providing energy at reasonable
price but instead they should be focusing on using sustainable resources and environmental
improvement. And Smart Grids will play a vital role to help utilities in accomplishing this
mission. So, we have to invest heavily in new hardware, software, business process development,
and staff training. Further there would be high investment in home area networks and smart
appliances by the customers. And making people accept the new technology will require a lot of
efforts in awareness programs focusing on long term benefits. In addition to these benefits it
would play important role in addressing global issues like energy security and climate change.
References

[1]http://swedishsmartgrid.se/globalassets/publikationer/marketanalysis_india2.pdf

[2]SMART GRID Fundamentals of Design and Analysis by James Momoh

[3]http://dst.gov.in/sites/default/files/India%20Country%20Report%20on%20Smart%20Grids.pdf

[4]http://nsgm.gov.in/sites/default/files/Insights-from-SGPP-for-Scaling-Up-Smart-Grids-in-India.pdf

[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2314717218300175

[6] http://sites.ieee.org/isgt2014/files/2014/03/Day2_Panel2C_Pillai.pdf

[7] http://www.indiasmartgrid.org/pilot.php

[8] http://www.nsgm.gov.in/en/nsgm

[9] hlp://indiasmartgrid.org/en/Pages/Projects.aspx