Smart electricity for a smarter future

Smart electricity is set to step in as the saviour to all power-related problems such as faulty metering, shortage of electricity, power theft and so on. Industry experts decode this relatively nascent sector and how it can be harnessed for more efficient power generation, transmission & distribution, and consumption.

Smart electricity has been the talk of the town in the power sector for a while now. While a complete shift towards smart electricity is yet to happen, significant steps are being taken towards this end. Here we delve into why smart electricity is necessary and what has been done on this front.

Syed Sajjadh Ali, Managing Director – Electrical Sector (India), Eaton India, says, “In the past, electricity grids were simple pipes through which electricity flowed from the producers to consumers. They have, however, evolved gradually to become “smart”. This has enabled producers to solve the growing issue of managing the balance of the grid. In India, this is still in the nascent stage, but the Government is planning to address it and hence is focusing on setting up smart meters and prepaid meters. This comes in the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in Indian electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) due to poor financial health, which has led to delayed payment to generation utilities.”

Piyush Garg, Director, Balaji Switchgears Pvt. Ltd. adds, “While entering 2020, India still stands in the category of developing nations where blackouts and improper power distribution is very common. Whenever in the future of India our power grids adopt the practice of smart electricity, the generation and consumption of power would be monitored in a systematic manner. The very common problem of electricity theft would be rectified. This will not only help at the consumer’s end, but also support our government to build an optimum Budget and save many parts of India from blackouts.”

Gautam Seth, Joint Managing Director, HPL Electric & Power Ltd. goes on to say that smart electricity has become the need of the hour. He elaborates, “Smart electricity is the current vision of integrating the conventional T&D system with Internet of Things (IoT) which would focus towards sustainable and comprehensive development. Mechanism of smart grids has shown an exponential growth since 2012. Also, 23 per cent of the total share of the smart city budget is being channelised towards providing smart energy solutions, which will further enhance the requirement and opportunity of smart electricity in India.”

Smart electricity for smart cities
Smart electricity is an important component of smart cities and is hence inevitable and crucial. As countries all over the world move towards smart cities, smart electricity is one of the aspects being addressed. Gopal Joshi, Director Sales, Athenta Technologies says, “Electric power is an essential element of any city, and smart electricity plays a significant role in the manifestation of a smart city. Smart electricity deals with an uninterrupted supply of quality power, and monitoring and recording real-time data of the energy provided to various buildings and industries.”

Alok Kishore, CEO, WAGO Private Limited mentions, “India is progressing well on the roads of smart cities and smart grids. The grids, automation and telemetrics technology are due for modernisation in India. Implementing modern controllers can provide important grid data, allowing grid operators to intervene with automated control as needed. Grid operators can use automation technology to precisely identify where their infrastructure must be modernised. Controllers can then be used later to automate processes and support load management. In this way, grid capacities can be better utilised, reducing the need for new lines.”

IoT applications in smart electricity
According to Jitendra Agrawal, MD, The Motwane Manufacturing Co. Pvt Ltd, the power sector is already witnessing benefits from early industrial and consumer IoT applications like smart meters and smart thermostats. Many power utilities and industries are embracing IoT to benefit from these technological advancements, combined with robotics, AI, machine learning, and predictive maintenance. This has been majorly observed in demand side management due to heavy participation from power distributors. Similar technology will surface and transform the generation and transmission segments. He adds, “In the next 4-5 years, the global utilities, IoT and smart devices market will reach nearly $15 billion, and a large chunk of it will be in India and emerging economies. Once all the systems are connected through IoT, the system can perform effective load balancing and load flow analysis, identify faulty transformers, and alert the nearby maintenance team for quick response along with real-time alerts, notifications, and scheduling. In addition, increasing adoption of cloud-based platforms like MOTWARE, and government-backed grid modernisation initiatives by Powergrid and other utilities provides strong growth opportunities in utility-based IoT market.”

Naman Singhal, Director, Prime Cable Industries Pvt. Ltd., says, “India is one of the most populated countries in the world. Conclusively, the increased consumption of electricity is obvious. We need to start using smart electrical devices and IoT to cut down on the use of electricity consumption. The government is also focusing on transforming hundreds of cities into smart cities with advanced street lighting and solar energy panels. So I see a lot of opportunities in smart electricity in India because all its cities need LED street lighting, smart meters, and power-efficient electrical appliances soon.”

Parag Yelegaonkar, Business Development Manager, Testo India Pvt Ltd, adds further, “The most important steps are in modern and robust network of transmission lines, sub-stations and green energy. Without the use of latest technologies like IoT and smart instruments for measurement and control, initiatives like green energy, smart grid, and digital sub-stations are unimaginable.”

Harish Agarwal, CEO, Supreme & Co. Pvt. Ltd., talks about how IoT can help the utilities sector become more efficient and profitable. “Indian utilities struggle with so-called “non-technical losses”, which include electricity theft, meter tampering, and non-payment by customers as also inadequate line monitoring data and analytics. These losses have a huge impact on the utilities’ profitability, service predictability, and operations performance. Several Indian states are now strengthening vigilance against power theft. With the Centre’s focus on boosting energy output through programmes such as National Smart Grid Mission and Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojna, utilities are looking for ways to meet the growing demand while cutting losses. By adopting the Internet of Things (IoT)-based metering infrastructure, using smart meters and smart grids, utilities can make further strides toward reliable power generation and distribution in India.

“Both customers and utilities benefit from real-time data on energy consumption. Using smart meters, utilities can monitor households or commercial establishments that do not pay their bills and can shut down their services remotely. As properly managing the portfolio is becoming important with more and more power being sourced at market-determined prices, demand forecasting based on high-quality data is becoming critical. Advanced metering solutions and technologies tailored to Indian needs represent a clear path forward for Indian utilities in their transformation journey.”

Alok Kishore says that there are a number of areas where technology can play a pivotal role to increase efficiency and minimise electricity loss. He explains, “While digital maturity in the power sector had its own challenges such as high cost of devices, storing and analysing high volume of data, among others, these were dealt with consistent efforts to adopt principles of IoT. The power and energy sector has benefitted from it by creating a flexible generation process to support efficient operations at various capacity factors. Connected devices can now accurately forecast renewable energy generation that will enable sufficient time to ramp up or down conventional generators, thereby reducing carbon footprint. With the growing pace of technological innovations and an intensively competitive technology providers’ marketplace, the power and energy sector is set to scale new heights.”

Shiv Kaushik, Power Consultant, says that while technologies like IoT and AI are essential for smart electricity, if we make some fundamental policy changes too, we would be able to achieve a more efficient distribution system. He says, “We must bring competitiveness into the distribution sector. I think the smart city concept is essential, so first of all, let’s go step by step and bring smart meters to each and every home, along with smart transformers, smart grids, etc. If we bring each step in a phased manner, we will be able to achieve smart electricity.”

More jobs for auxiliary industries
Smart electricity will not only provide jobs to companies dealing in this segment, but also to companies working in related segments. Hitesh Karandikar, Director, Electrical Research and Development Association (ERDA) shares, “Smart electricity will throw opportunities for IEC 61850 communication protocol testing of IEDS. However, this market has so far been dominated by global players who have tested their products in international laboratories. But with the push of “Make in India” initiatives, more domestic manufacturers will enter into the market, thus creating more business opportunities for IEC 61850 protocol testing. There is also scope for PMU testing, real-time simulator, LVRT and HVRT testing facility, etc. for smart grids. There are scarce testing facilities for such features of smart grids. ERDA has assessed such market needs and is planning to create these latest evaluation facilities.”

He also elaborates on smart meters that are integral to enabling smart electricity. “At present, the major focus of smart electricity seems to be on smart meters. Millions of smart meters are being installed in the distribution system in India. This huge scale of market has brought down the price of smart meters to unbelievably low levels, much like the earlier case of LED lamps. However, we need to be very careful about the quality of such meters being produced. Otherwise, the customer may lose confidence in these meters and the adoptability of the scheme would be under doubt. For us, this creates a unique challenge of testing various smart meters accurately within the shortest possible time. So far, we have been able to meet these challenges successfully and have become the most preferred laboratory for smart meters in India. All the global manufacturers of smart meters are coming to us for evaluation of their products.”

Batteries used for storing surplus electricity will be another component that will be in the limelight vis-à-vis smart electricity. Syed Sajjadh Ali mentions, “The excess energy produced can be stored using battery banks without trading back to the utility. Batteries are used to provide a backup power supply for the real-time clock present in smart meters. Eaton India offers lithium-ion battery storage along with its 3-Phase UPS solutions which are an alternative to conventional lead acid batteries.”
Vikram Bhansali, Director, Metravi Instruments Pvt Ltd and CEM Instruments India Pvt Ltd discusses how his companies are taking steps to address related needs like smart instruments. “With the growing trend towards smart cities and more environmentally conscious consumers, there is a clear growth in smart electricity — be it smart grids, more efficient production and transmission or automated monitoring and consumption systems. With this comes a need for efficient, precise and high-accuracy instrumentation. We are in a prime position to be able to fulfil these needs with our smart and high-precision, reliable instruments. So, we see growing and sustainable opportunities for both smart electricity and our smart instruments for such smart systems.”

Parag Yelegaonkar mentions, “Our smart thermal imagers like testo872, electrical instruments like clamp meters testo770-3, Wi-Fi data loggers, transmitters for measurement of various process parameters along with precise temperature and humidity measurements find extensive applications in power plants, power plant control rooms and server centres.”

Way forward
Smart electricity is here to stay and its role will only increase in future. Syed Sajjadh Ali says about this, “Concerning the emerging end-use technologies, it is clear that smart electricity will play an important role in the future. Its penetration in different countries will increase in the next 10-20 years. The primary concern is still the price of components, which is constantly at a high level, although there is potential for decrease in the next five years. Cost-benefit analysis shows that smart metering is economically feasible in most cases, if benefits to all stakeholders and society are considered.”

Gopal Joshi, Director Sales, Athenta Technologies, says, “Smart electricity will play an essential role in future; its penetration in different cities will increase in the upcoming years. Development boards of various countries are aiming at the set-up of a smart integrated infrastructure, which will be a convergence of physical infrastructure, communication, data, and analytics. These engagements will look for greater effectiveness and steadiness, and to give the best performance when connected with distributed generation units.”

The significance of smart electricity as an essential tool for resource and power optimisation cannot be underestimated, and it is only a matter of time before we see this next-generation technology being harnessed to its full potential.