Demand for increase in productivity helping Industry 4.0

With demand for increasing productivity, better accuracy and less human intervention, Industry 4.0 is a reality today
Hitesh Karandikar, Director, Electrical Research and Development Association

In a discussion, Hitesh Karandikar, Director, Electrical Research and Development Association explains how IoT and AI will play a major role for making Industry 4.0 a reality and smart electricity will also throw opportunities for IEC 61850 communication protocol testing of IEDs.

What is going to be your focus in this 14th edition of ELECRAMA?
Like earlier, ERDA is participating in ELECRAMA 2020 in a big way. We have a 42 sq. mtr. three-side open stall H3A1 in Hall No. 3 of the Exhibition Centre. The theme of our stall is “Supporting Energy Transition to 2030”. In this exhibition, we shall be focusing on our futuristic developments to support transition of the electrical industry to the new decade, i.e., 2030. We shall be highlighting our newly developing HTLS testing facility and Solar PV Panel type testing facility. We shall also be showcasing our various new technology developments, e.g. Automatic Solar PV Panel cleaning system, IoT based hotspot temperature monitor for distribution transformers and temperature measurement for switchgear panels. We shall also be presenting our existing future generation testing facilities, e.g. LED Lamp and Luminaire Testing facility, IEC – 61850 Protocol Testing facility, Smart Meter Testing facilities, our Power System Analysis facilities using latest software tools, etc.

How do you view the rise of IoT and Industry 4.0 transforming the sector?
IoT and AI will play a major role in transforming the sector to Industry 4.0. With demand for increasing productivity, better accuracy and less human intervention, Industry 4.0 is a reality today. Everybody in the industrial ecosystem should quickly align with this reality and gear up themselves for this transformation. We cannot afford to miss this bus to be left behind in the global manufacturing scenario.

The R&D centre of ERDA is continuously working on various IoT based cutting edge solutions mainly for prediction of fault and asset management in the electrical sector. ERDA has developed technology for IoT based temperature measurement for low voltage switchgear panels and IoT based hotspot monitor for distribution transformers to predict the health of this equipment and to manage predictive maintenance of this equipment to maximise production. ERDA has also developed its own IoT based campus lighting system to ensure effective utilisation of lighting.

What kind of opportunities exists in smart electricity for India?
At present, the major focus of smart electricity seems to be on smart energy meters. Millions of smart energy 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 on these meters and adoptability of the scheme would be under doubt. For us, this creates a unique challenge of testing various smart energy meters accurately within 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.

Smart electricity will also 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 opportunity 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.

Can you brief about the latest innovations and additions for your range of solutions?
In the R&D sector, ERDA wants to grow further and is looking for partnership opportunities with global and national manufacturing companies, and government sector, e.g. MNRE, NETRA etc. In the R&D area, ERDA is extensively working on various EV charging solutions, EV drives and motors to overcome the challenges of grid integration of renewable energy. Products recently developed by ERDA are DC fast charging for EV chargers, synchronous reluctance motor and drive for EVs.

In the field of testing and evaluation, ERDA is in an advanced stage of setting up of a state-of-the-art High Temperature Low Sag (HTLS) conductor testing facility at Vadodara. Presently, India is having no HTLS conductor testing facility and manufacturers have to go abroad for testing of such conductors. This facility is expected to come up by March 2020.

ERDA is also setting up complete type testing facility of Solar PV Panels as per IS 14286 and IS / IEC 61730 at Vadodara. This project is expected to be completed by June 2020.

What are your plans and projections for the next two years?
ERDA will be upgrading its existing 600kV partial discharge test facility to 900kV and has plans to set up a climatic test facility for dry type transformer, fully automatic transformer test system, solar inverter testing facility, and Specific Absorbance Rate (SAR) testing facility. ERDA is also planning to upgrade its conducted immunity and radiated immunity test facility under EMI/EMC testing facility. ERDA is also planning to acquire portable accurate transformer loss measuring system for onsite testing of power transformers.

However, the dream project of ERDA is to set up a centre of excellence for medium voltage short circuit laboratory for testing of medium voltage switchgear equipment and power transformers up to 50 MVA, 132kV. ERDA believes it’s a project of national importance. This project is having an outlay of around 600 crore. Financial closure of this project is awaited from Government of India and Government of Gujarat.