The report of a task force on grid modernization set up by the power ministry in September 2021 was recently accepted by the ministry. Set up under the chairmanship of CMD, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), the objective of the task force was to suggest ways of modernizing the country’s power transmission sector and making it smart and future-ready.
As an outcome of the report, the country will soon have a modern and smart power transmission system with features such as real-time monitoring and automated operation of grid, better situational assessment, capability to have increased share of renewable capacity in the power-mix, enhanced utilization of transmission capacity, greater resilience against cyber-attacks as well as natural disasters, centralized and data driven decision-making, reduction in forced outages through self-correcting systems etc, a government release said.
Members of the Task Force included representatives from state transmission utilities, Central Electricity Authority, Central Transmission Utilities, MeiTY, IIT-Kanpur, NSGPMU and EPTA.
While the short-term to medium term recommendations will be implemented over 1-3 years, the long-term interventions are proposed to be implemented over a period of 3-5 years.
Resilient grids: Need of the hour
During the meeting in which the report was accepted, R.K. Singh, Union minister for power and new & renewable energy said that a modern transmission grid is vital to achieve the government’s vision to provide 24×7 reliable and affordable power to the people and also meet the sustainability goals.
Singh said that a fully automated, digitally controlled, fast responsive grid which is resilient to cyber attacks and natural disasters is the need of the hour. The Minister said that such a system should ensure isolation of specific areas in case of any contingency, so as to protect the grid and prevent larger outages.
Appreciating the efforts of the task force, the power minister directed CEA to formulate necessary standards and regulations for adoption of identified technological solutions and set benchmark performance levels so as to build a robust and modern transmission network in the country.
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Digital solutions
The Task force in its report has recommended a bouquet of technological and digital solutions that be adopted to make the state transmission grids future ready.
These recommendations have been clubbed under categories of modernization of existing transmission system; use of advanced technology in construction & supervision, operations & management; smart & future-ready transmission system; and up-skilling of workforce.
The Task Force has recommended
- Centralized remote monitoring operation of substations including SCADA, Flexible AC Transmission devices (FACTs), Dynamic Line Loading system (DLL), Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) using PMUs and data analytics
- Hybrid AC/HVDC system
- Predictive maintenance technique using AI/ML algorithms
- HTLS Conductors
- Process Bus based Protection Automation and Control GIS/Hybrid Substation,
- Cyber Security
- Energy Storage System and
- Drones & Robots in construction/inspection of transmission assets
The task force also recommended benchmarks for transmission network availability and voltage control based on performance of global transmission utilities.
Featured photograph (source: Sterlite Power) is for representation only.
