Smart grids for reliable power

The leader across the power grid sector highlights the challenges and the critical factors of grid integration and transformation into a smart grids with sustainable infrastructure.
There is a rising demand for intelligent and dependable electricity with the increasing global population. In addition, recent trends and improvements in the electrical grid and grid networks point to new advancements and developments in the smart grid context.
Technically, intelligent grid integration connects information and communication technologies to the current electrical grid in a two-way manner. Smart grid technologies and solutions can aid in lowering transmission and distribution losses, controlling peak loads, enhancing service quality, boosting reliability, managing assets, integrating renewable energy sources, and supplying access to reliable power.
Sustainability in smart grid infrastructure
While discussing the smart grid infrastructure, Shriprakash Pandey, Chairman & Managing Director Commtel, “sustainability will play a significant role in reshaping the grid structure and our energy scenario with green energy. India’s ambitious renewable energy targets of 500 GW by 2030 are unattainable. So, when we plan to add so much alternative energy, integration becomes critical, as does the grid’s attempt to balance to control the excessive number of outages caused by instability. This also necessitates a real-time, data-driven action plan to address the effluent power sector’s insecurity.”
He further adds, “In today’s urbanised and modernised era, balancing the demand and supply of power is the biggest challenge. Because the increase in urbanisation and modernisation has driven big changes in electricity consumption, even though our per capita consumption remains low compared to other developed countries and the rest of the world, we have consistently seen peak power demand during a specific period. The power regulator and utilities are increasingly concerned about balancing demand and supply.
It is now time for India to advance in terms of realising its capabilities in other areas. We are the market leader in software for mobile communication, the internet, and networking. Even in terms of technology, India is at the forefront.
It is expected that digitalisation will accelerate in the power sector soon. And perhaps in the next 3–4 years, the Indian power sector will be digitalised rapidly, with smart meters installed everywhere.
Grid Integration
While discussing grid integration, Raghavendra Mirji, Senior Vice President & Head – Electrical and Electronics Business, Godrej & Boyce Co. Mfg. “The majority of the power grid in use today is of an older design, built for the use and production of conventional power.” Large power plants with a single location used to be mentioned when discussing generation or production, but this has changed as we moved closer to the available resources.” Today’s facilities are comparably smaller and are built to meet the local energy demand. Numerous tiny plants have distributed generating stations in place of a few prominent local plants, which were formerly provided.

He adds, “We are gradually moving away from limits and toward decentralisation of power.” In contrast to earlier, when the grid was centralised as a national grid connecting a small network, we are now connecting numerous endpoints.” For a more effective generation, small-scale transmission is necessary. To better comprehend supply and demand, communication must be upgraded and modernised. The supply and distribution systems need to be understood by consumers. He further states, “Demand response, distributed generation, energy storage, thermally triggered technology, and renewable energy are all integrated into the electrical distribution and transmission system. Integration into demand management is essential because several demands must be successfully managed.” The next goal is to improve the power quality of the domains, which has a significant impact and presents a significant challenge, particularly in reactive power regulation. Resource integration is a crucial component, but it comes at a higher cost because of it.
While discussing grid management, Shirish S. Garud, Director, Renewable Energy Technology at The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), highlights, “the Indian grid electricity system is split into five regional grids for planning and operational reasons.” To achieve “one nation, one grid, and one frequency,” the government connected the southern region to the main grid in 2013 while also commissioning the appropriate solar power transmission line. By 2022, the Indian government hopes to build 100,000 MW of solar capacity. The entire transmission strategy for integrating 2,000 MW of solar power from 34 solar parks in various states, out of a total capacity of 100 MW, is detailed in the “Green Energy Corridor II Study.” For a total cost of 12800 crores, this concept includes an interstate and intrastate transmission scheme with 7200 km of transmission lines and a transformation capacity of 28700 MVA.
Shirish also emphasises the RE integration issues “Our grid code currently mandates us to control grid frequency between 49.85 and 50.5, which is a huge difficulty. Four, like Trump, must forecast generation from renewable power plants in 15-minute intervals.” The intermittent nature of solar and wind energy is the key contributor to this instability. Of course, one way is to combine storage with renewable energy sources. However, the cost of storing remains, and it is now relatively high compared to the cost of producing electricity.
The use of smart grid technologies has produced enormous amounts of highly complex data. The information relates to customer details, utility usage, transmission logs, etc. It requires processing to yield critical insights because it needs to be more structured. Smart grid solution vendors need help storing and managing the constant data flow from diverse network nodes. Unmanaged data can pose several risks, and it might take time to derive valuable insights from it. The relevant authorities must establish cost-effective, high-volume data centres and deploy analytical tools.
Understanding the social, economic, and environmental value of the information provided by the smart grid and creating a solution that is likely to combine the data and correlate the information produced by the smart grid represents a significant challenge for utility providers.
Millions of smart meters, grid sensors, control devices, and networks of other electronic devices are producing enormous volumes of data for smart utilities. The difficulty faced by information technology providers is the generation and gathering of usable data insights from such massive data for intelligent decision-making. One of the primary uses of smart grid technology is processing vast amounts of data to provide real-time analytics. Solution providers must create superior data analysis methods and precise predictive analysis models to gain a competitive edge. Utility providers’ most challenging task is providing intelligent business solutions to forecast equipment failure, natural disasters and their effects, and consumer behaviour patterns based on historical data and usage trends.