IntelliSmart Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (IntelliSmart) has successfully concluded INSTINCT 2.0, its flagship innovation challenge. The program received overwhelming response.
While both individual and team registrations rose 38 per cent compared to the first edition, participation from students (up 37 per cent), start-ups (35 per cent) and professionals (40 per cent) also saw a significant uptick.
IntelliSmart is a joint venture between National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).
Objective
IntelliSmart’s flagship innovation challenge aims to create an active tech ecosystem in the power sector by nurturing ideas and talents and enable the industry to push the envelope of digitalisation.
Focus Area
INSTINCT 2.0 focused on four critical challenges relevant to smart metering and energy sector:
- Re-usability or safe disposal of outdated meters
- Hybrid communication modules for smart meters
- Device level data trimming to reduce stress on AMI systems
- Developing cost effective and indigenous solutions to achieve plug and play interchangeability or integration among CCMS
Winning ideas
The winning ideas and concepts showed deep solution-focused thinking with the potential of mass-scale commercialisation. For the hybrid communication modules challenge, the winner developed an AI-based device concept that can trim AMI data by cutting down DLMS payloads and expand network capacity.
For the hybrid communication modules challenge, the winner built a NIC with dual radio frequency which can ensure data assurance and cost efficiencies of smart meter deployment. For both the challenges, the winner was Team Boltron, constituted by Ravi Subramanyam, BhautikRamoliya and SomarajuPitchika.
For the fourth challenge on CCMS, the winner proposed a concept of common dashboard with an intermediate layer that can handle all disparate data and carry out necessary data transformation before feeding them into a common dashboard.
Smart grid: The vital link
Lauding the initiative, Shri R Lakshmanan, Executive Director, REC and CEO, RECPDCL and the eminent Jury Chair of INSTINCT 2.0 said, “Smart metering and smart grid form a vital link in the country’s energy transition efforts. In the two consecutive years, INSTINCT has intrigued and excited the power industry with its ability to hone innovative ideas to solve practical challenges of the power sector and have far-reaching implications for India’s smart metering journey.”
Breeding transformative ideas
Shri Anil Rawal, MD & CEO, IntelliSmart said, “I am glad to see such overwhelming response for INSTINCT 2.0 from the innovation community. In our bid to pioneer digitalisation in the power sector, it is our responsibility to create an enabling ecosystem which can breed transformative ideas and solutions that can tackle some of the most difficult industry issues. In this effort, INSTINCT has emerged as a prime proposition.”
Read more: India’s Smart Meter Population Crosses 4 Million
The jury
This year, the jury comprised of eminent industry leaders and academicians — R. Lakshmanan, Chief Executive Officer, Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd; Arun Kumar Mishra, Chief Executive Officer, EESL; Prof. Sukumar Mishra, Associate Dean, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi; and Anil Rawal, MD & CEO, IntelliSmart.
