Smart electricity enhances customer experience

Speaking about the key reformations that are fueling the concept of smart cities through smart electricity, Kapil Sharma, CEO of Adani Electricity, says that with rising demand, smart electricity plays a critical role in the optimum utilisation of assets, thereby providing cost-effective power to customers while minimising waste and providing more efficient billing.
What critical factors are enabling us to push the concept of smart electricity for smart cities in India?
Customer experience and cost optimisation play a crucial role in enabling smart electricity. Smart and real-time data insights will allow the utility to give their customers customised information and help optimise costs while leveraging customer behaviour for better asset usage and making prudent investments in the network.
How are modernisation and urbanisation impacting the ever-increasing demand for quality power and thus objectifying smart power and electricity in India? 
Smart electricity enhances customer experience, energy savings, and operational efficiencies. Nowadays, customers are using sophisticated equipment, which requires quality power. The rise in urbanisation coupled with modernisation through developmental projects such as “Power to All,” “Make in India” manufacturing, and electric mobility, has significantly enhanced electricity consumption. Systems should be ready to meet the demands of this “new changing energy era.” With rising demand, smart electricity plays a critical role in maximising asset utilisation, thus providing customers with cost-effective power while minimising waste and providing more efficient billing.
How do you see the approach of private and state DISCOMs in smart metering applications?
Most DISCOMS use smart meters for prepaid billing, energy audits, etc. While DISCOMS is using this opportunity for enhanced efficiency, it is indeed a path towards endless possibilities. While using smart metering for basic activities can also be leveraged for outage management services for the customers, including understanding insights on customer usage, predicting failures in the network, and providing proactive value-added services to the customer.
How does the government’s aim of “Power for All” and “One Nation, One Grid” complement the smart city plan?
Before 2000, our aim was supply availability, which until 2018 was switched to supply reliability, and now the focus is on supply quality. India achieved a unified grid in 2013, followed by 100 percent electrification in April 2018. A suitable grid has improved grid stability, which has helped utilities operate with improved reliability. While the basic infrastructure has been created with the strengthening of the network and reduction in outages, there is a need for real-time network analysis. Smart electricity enables real-time energy accounting and high-quality power delivery to consumers.
How are advanced technologies like digital power tools and smart metering programmes helping us gain accuracy and consistency in the power supply? 
While basic infrastructure like the outage management system relies on human intervention, i.e., a call from a customer, to predict the abnormalities in the network, smart meters enable real-time information from the customers. This resulted in the diagnostic approach shifting from preventive to predictive. In the same way, energy accounting, which could never be reconciled in real-time, is now possible with the advent of smart metering for the grid and customers. This will further ensure more effective demand-side management and a competitive consumer tariff.
What are the responsive measures being taken by the power GENCOs and DISCOMs towards energy security?
India’s power generation mix is rapidly shifting toward renewable energy. Today, India is the world’s third-largest producer of renewable energy. India is running the world’s largest renewable energy expansion programme to increase RE capacity. Apart from these new initiatives, others like pump storage, green hydrogen, etc., are also on the horizon for improving generation capacity. To enhance grid stability, the transmission networks have been upgraded to n-1 redundancy, islanding schemes, and HVAC and HVDC systems to ensure reliable and cost-effective bulk power transmission.
What is the policy support needed to fast-track this?
Policy advocacy is required to promote more R&D and incentive schemes to achieve breakthrough developments. The emphasis should be more on promoting semiconductor manufacturing and battery storage technology to harness the power of renewable energy. Priority programs can be introduced to strengthen the power infrastructures of utilities and dynamic power pricing to meet the growing electricity demand requirements of electric vehicles.
In terms of smart grids and grid connectivity, how well are we moving towards powering geographically critical areas in India?
A plethora of initiatives in distribution is in progress to ensure end-to-end smart grid connectivity through ADMS, the AMI ecosystem, GIS, etc., to ensure safe, reliable, and cost-effective power to its consumers.