India to play leading role in popularising smart grid

“… evolving smart grids of the future is a going to provide huge business and employment opportunities,” remarks Reji Kumar Pillai, President, India Smart Grid Forum
 India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) is a public private partnership initiative of Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India for accelerated development of smart grid technologies in the Indian power sector. The forum helps the Indian power sector deploy smart grid technologies in an efficient, cost-effective, innovative and scalable manner by bringing together all key stakeholders and enabling technologies. In an exclusive interview with EPR, Reji Kumar Pillai shares how ISGF is advocating in promoting smart grid technology in India.
The smart grid market worldwide is forecast to witness a CAGR of 26.6 per cent, reaching $125 billion by 2017. Where do you want place India in the growth trajectory?The emergence of India as a strong economic power is receiving widespread recognition in the world. Although we operate the fourth largest power system in the world, one-third of our population have no access to electricity and our per-capita consumption of electricity is one-fourth of the world average. Transmission and distribution losses in India are also quite high — about 26 per cent in distribution and more than 7 per cent in transmission. The Government of India and other stakeholders have realized that by implementing incremental improvements in a business as usual scenario, we will not be able to provide 24/7 electricity to all households in the country. It requires innovative strategies, breakthrough technologies and bold decisions.
In 2013, the government issued “Smart Grid Vision” and “Roadmap for India”. The newly elected government is committed to provide 24/7 electricity to all households in the next 5 years and has recently launched three focused programmes towards this objective with a total capital outlay of $14 billion.
The new government has also announced ambitious programmes to build 100 smart cities on fast track and add 180 GW of renewable energy (100 GW solar, 60 GW wind and 20 GW other RE) generation capacity by 2022. Out of this, 40 GW is proposed to be added at the low-voltage grid from rooftop PV. This is going to change the picture of the grid dramatically. Also, 100 smart cities programme will focus on building smart grids in those 100 cities. The erstwhile R-APDRP being re-packaged as IPDS and extended to 500 more towns where as, even in the DDUGJY, there are components of smart meters and ERP. With all these ground breaking initiatives, India has already emerged as the prime destination for smart grids and smart cities. If all these programmes move ahead even at average pace, these initiatives will change all the market predictions and put India in the forefront of smart grid market.
How is ISGF helping promote the smart grid technology in India?The India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) is a public-private partnership of the Ministry of Power, Government of India, for accelerated deployments of smart grid technologies. Apart from assisting the Power Ministry in formulation of policies and programmes for smart grid development, we offer advisory services to state utilities, regulators and other ministries. We also impart training, outreach and capacity building programmes to all stakeholders. In addition, we undertake research in new technologies, work with standards bodies, build new business models and work with various stakeholders to undertake technology demonstration projects in furthering the cause of smart grids.

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