Blackout fiasco! Will we go offline?

Incidents of massive power outages and grid failures, puts an onus on having an automated and controlled grid connectivity, that lets you deal with such hardship period, permitting you few hours to locate the problem area and offer provisional solution. Discussing a very recent unforeseen incident of massive blackout in Argentina and Uraguay, industry leaders, exchange their views and suggest possible solutions to avoid any failure in interconnected electricity and communication.

Climatic condition have been playing a significant role in changing the shape and lives of several nations. Countries like India, Argentina, among the other few nations, have been an easy victim of heavy and unfavourable climatic conditions, leading the tens and thousands of people live in blackout for long hours. Argentina’s massive blackout struck on 16th July 2019 at around 7 AM affecting almost 50 million people. The massive shutdown was a result of breakdown in two of the critical routes of Argentine Interconnection System (SADI) (500 KV transmission network)that supplies power generated by the Yacyretá Dam in Paraguay and the Salto Grande Dam on the Uruguay River to consumption end led to Argentina blackout.

Complex reasoning
While discussing one of the critical reasons of Argentina’s massive blackout in Argentina, where 500 kV transmission line was established to link multiple generators, N. Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu, Senior Advisor, EY India, pointed out that two critical circuits went out of service triggering the automated protection system at generation end,which we call the generation automatic disconnection (DAG). The DAG scheme carried out generation disconnection to maintain the transient stability. It also led to surge of load to other generating plants, causing tripping of their protection circuits resulting in fall of whole grid.

Even Avishai Drori, CEO, Sol-Around, feels that it must be the result of grid failure. He further says, There are some nations which have rationalised and restructured their grid systems, so as to accumulate increased quantity of solar energy. But, as we know that the sun rays are obtainable only during the day. Further in his opinion, he says, I think, if every nation reorganises their grid systems, they could resourcefully accumulate the new type of solar energy every time. But, here, in Argentina, the situation seems more of a local management level problem and not a principle problem.

While speaking about the possible reason of the failure, Ponniah Sankarakumar, Director, Power Systems, Schneider Electric India says, Probably, the operational and design errors played a major role in Argentina blackout, leaving tens of thousands of people in dark. This implies that such faults happen in systems where the grid operator does not have sensing and/or communications equipment already built into the grid that might have otherwise allowed them to visualise what’s coming at them from another part of the grid and to take quick and remedial action to protect service in their own area.

Extreme weather: The unpredictable destroyer
Extreme weather conditions have increased over the past 20 years and are a leading cause of blackouts around the world, as such environmental issues had not been expected in the original grid planning. The situation in Argentina is a reminder that electric grids are still not ready to handle the increasing intensity of storms resulting from climate change.

While talking about India’s preparedness for such attacks,Sankara kumar highlights that most of the electricity supply in India are transmissioned through wires hanging on heightened poles.During heavy weather, there is a chance of flash over of transmission line insulators, short circuit by falling trees or due to wind, overhead line wires may touch each other, and electric faults can happen. At that time, circuit breaker of transmission lines opens and due to sudden opening of that line, load on other transmission lines can rise and overload others.

However, he adds, that The Indian grid designers and regulatory agencies have already taken such eventualities into system design at connected products level (protection relays) or at edge control level (substation automation) or at the applications level (SCADA).Moreover,in India, the power system operating companies now get regular weather updates from the IMD (Indian Meteorology Department), and have broad back-up plans for various weather patterns and progressions set in place. On this plan, Sankarakumar says, With this structural strengthening, there is already a fair amount of confidence with which the personnel manage the grid during heavy rains.

Deteriorating defence power of smart grid
S mart grid deployment in India has improved the intelligence of grid system’s inter operation by facilitating multi-directional information flow. Such information flow also creates a need of huge infrastructure requirement for equipment, hardware and software which can tackle techno-traps arising out of it, for which massive investment becomes the prerequisite.

Highlighting that the constitution of National Smart Grid Mission is a great initiative in the right direction for one of the world’s fastest growing economies, Pradeep Menon, CEO, Lakshya Labs, says, With this initiative, smart grid can provide various benefits including energy efficiency and savings, better customer service, detection of fraud, reduce in technical losses, increased competition, reduction in carbon emissions etc.

Elaborating on the cyber security measures for a smart grid, Menon says, From a cyber security standpoint, smart grid’s increased use of digital technology, two-way communication channels, extensive deployment of sensor network, inclusion of new user groups such as markets, energy providers and regulators increase the attack surface area for potential cyber security adversaries and also lowers the defence barrier of these grids.

Adding to the discussion, Menon says, As the space gets more evolved new models starts appearing such as Vehicle to Grids (V2G) etc.We would see introduction of new attack points and vulnerabilities. I would therefore consider that the Indian Government similar to various large economies incorporate a sector specific cyber security team to study and implement cyber security controls right in the beginning than as an afterthought post a high intensity disaster.

Speaking of the need of smart grid systems in India, Amit Bajpayee, Solar Energy Adviser, Agni Solar Systems Pvt. Ltd, says, Introduction of smart grid brings a security threat to the nation’s cyber-security. India has taken some key initiatives to tackle these risks. Additionally, Indian Government have formed a national cyber co-ordination centre, and has framed national cyber safety and security standards, where the expert council can understand the possible and provide innovative ways and framework to tackle the increasing cyber threat faced by large countries like India. Apart from the guidelines, a working group of information technology, in 2013, set up the 6 top priorities for cyber-security including legal framework, security policies, compliance and assurance, security R&D, security incident and security awareness.

However, smart grid technology is still at the evolving stage, and what we have seen so far about its resilience to cyber security attacks that happened from Ukraine to US and South America, have not be very promising. Smart grid’s ability to withstand sophisticated attacks from adversarial nation state actors, availability of access channels outside the stakeholder groups, software flaws, hardware weaknesses, and inherent security risks in the overall implementation needs a lot to be desired.

Fortifying highly encrypted smart grid security
Smart grid deployment in India has improved the intelligence of grid system’s interoperation by facilitating multi-directional information flow. Such information flow also creates a need of huge infrastructure requirement for equipment, hardware and software which can tackle techno-traps arising out of it for which massive investment becomes the prerequisite.

Government of India initiatives on this front include appointment of CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) of India, development of standards for cyber security requirements (IS 16335 :2015) in power system control equipment by Sectional Committee (Electronics and Information Technology Division) LITD-10 , release of framework for evaluating cyber security in critical information infrastructure, operationalisation of Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-In) as the national agency for dealing with cyber security threats etc.

Yuvaraj Babu says, India needs a liberal investment approval from regulators as multiple intangible benefits are involved in it. Regulatory ambit must be expanded to cover cyber security regulations to ensure data protection. It may also amend grid codes to facilitate new entrants of smart grid such as EVs, IoT, etc. .

Standardised automation in grid to reduce dynamic load and energy consumption
Power grid is a combination of multiple network elements and electrical components that are used to generate, transmit, distribute and supply power to end users. Complexity of power system has emerged rapidly over the years, after facing challenges like system growth, availability, reliability, engineering, planning expectations, and most importantly smart grids.

Insisting on having a standard automation system for grid management, by advancing the system after possible fall outs due to the said reasons, Sankara kumar, says, This created a need for a standardised automation system and design framework for grids to ensure smooth and fault free operation. Therefore, by automating the power system or grid one gains significant benefits such as improved system reliability, planning, design, efficiency and response to various failure modes that may occur during day-to-day operations. And standardised system helps in increasing the efficiencies and also ensures in inter-operability.

A more suitable option is to make the grid smart and find ways to automate it, making the system more efficient, reliable, and green. Smart grids are essentially electrical grids that include a variety of operational and energy measures including smart meters, smart appliances, renewable energy resources, and energy efficient resources. It implies energy resource optimisation as well as optimisation of time of use. In smart grid, network flow of electricity from utility to consumer becomes a two-way conversation, saving consumers money, energy, delivering more transparency in terms of end-user use, and reducing carbon emissions.

Sankarakumar, in his view, says The influx of renewables, and the revised target of achieving 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 has boosted the power sector. While installed capacity is sufficient to meet demand, not all of this is available for use. An ageing infrastructure with high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses and lower output complexes the problem, resulting in low quality and sustainability of power.

While the government has a thrust on renewables to increase capacity, the present infrastructure is not capable of managing and integrating this power into the grid. Therefore, there is a need to make several changes to the system. This can be done by reworking the entire grid infrastructure. However, this method is operationally difficult, leads to disruption in power supply, and is financially unviable.

What needs to be done!
Stressing on having advanced technologies that could have saved the day, Sankara kumar suggests to install modern electric grids that are designed like a web and helps isolate blackouts as much as possible. If a high-voltage line between generation stations goes down, electricity can be rerouted through other pathways, thereby reducing the chances of power outages and blackouts. He further adds, At the connected products level, the protection relay functionality and settings would have to be updated as the power grid evolution, amidst other natural causes, would have caused newer scenarios, which would not have been considered in the contingency planning originally.

I think, if every nation reorganise their grid systems, they could resourcefully accumulate the new type of solar energy every time
Avishai Drori, CEO, Sol-Around

Regulatory ambit must be expanded to cover cyber security regulations to ensure data protection
N.Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu, Senior Advisor, EY India

Indian Government have formed a national cyber co-ordination centre for cyber safety and security standards to withstand the security threat posed by smart grid to the nation’s cyber-security
Amit Bajpayee, Solar Energy Adviser, Agni Solar Systems Pvt. Ltd

Indian Government should incorporate a sector specific cyber security team to study and implement cyber security controls right in the beginning than as an afterthought post a high intensity disaster
Pradeep Menon, CEO, Lakshya Labs

There is a need to install modern electric grids that are designed like a web and helps isolate blackouts as much as possible
Ponniah Sankarakumar, Director, Power Systems, Schneider Electric India