MNRE dedicates AGC to meet India’s RE target

AGC facilitates achieving the government’s ambitious target of 500 GW non-fossil fuel-based generation capacity by 2030.

Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy R.K. Singh recently dedicated Automatic Generation Control (AGC) to the nation. This is expected to facilitate achieving the government’s ambitious target of 500 GW non-fossil fuel-based generation capacity by 2030. 

While speaking on the 5th POSOCO Day, R.K. Singh remarked that  India is getting ready for integration of large-scale variable and intermittent renewable sources and one of the major tools for enabling the frequency control is AGC.

The AGC is being operated by Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) through National Load Despatch Centre. Through AGC, NLDC (National Load Despatch Centre) sends signals to more than 50 power plants in the country every 4 seconds to maintain the frequency and reliability of the Indian Power System. This will ensure more efficient and automatic frequency control for handling variable and intermittent renewable generation.

R.K. Singh also released a report titled “Assessment of Inertia in Indian Power System” which has been prepared by POSOCO in collaboration with IIT Bombay. Considering the aggressive target of integrating RE capacity in India, POSOCO instituted a study in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, to review the global best practices in respect of estimation, measurement, and monitoring of Power System inertia and evolve a methodology for the same in the context of Indian Power System.

On the country’s march towards achieving the renewable energy capacity of 175 GW in 2022, India has achieved an installed capacity of 150 GW of renewable energy, including large hydro projects. 63 GW of renewable energy capacity is under various phases of installation, which is expected to be completed by next year.

Talking about the challenges of the Indian Power System, Singh said, “POSOCO has to brace up for challenges of the future, in our national goal of transition to cleaner energy. The dynamics in the Indian Power Sector are multifold, ranging from the changing fuel mix, penetration of renewables, the proliferation of distributed energy resources, and the challenge to deepen system security and resilience.”

The power sector is transforming. There is a need of balancing grid operations as renewables are evolving as a greater challenge. We have penetration of solar even in the agriculture sector. A substantial part of the consumption will be generated by consumers through renewables. We will see even industries switching to renewables as tariff of industries is higher than consumers’. We need to come up with a mechanism to balance this all,” he said.

“As demand catches up with existing capacity, POSOCO won’t have the luxury to have surplus at hand, therefore POSOCO should have reserves through ancillary services.” In respect of quality institutions for system operation at the State level, the Minister said that there has to be a system of compulsory certification.

Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Power said, “POSOCO is contributing to the formation of the South Asian Grid for effective utilisation of resources between neighbouring countries (Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar) under its jurisdiction. Over the years, POSOCO has successfully operated the Indian Electricity Grid with a focus on efficiency, reliability, safety and fairness, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

The event was attended by various distinguished officials from the MOP, MNRE, RPC, NLDC, RLDCs and SLDCs through hybrid mode.

POSOCO Day is observed on 3rd January to commemorate its independent functioning under the Ministry of Power as one of the Power PSUs after separating from Powergrid as its subsidiary organisation. It is responsible to ensure the integrated operation of the grid in a reliable, efficient, and secure manner. It consists of 5 Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) and the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC).