IMS Research report includes outline for smart grid in India

Recent widespread power failures in India have highlighted a number of problems that exist in the electrical grid. An IMS Research report, Distribution Automation Equipment - 2012 Edition, analyzes regional differences between distribution automation adoption globally, including developing countries such as India, and the role that smart-grid technologies can play to help with these problems. The subject is to be aired at the 2nd World Smart-Grid Conference in New Delhi September 12-14. India now has the fifth largest electricity grid in the world and the third largest transmission and distribution network. However, demand from increased economic activities, the rising living standard of population, and water shortages have led to a situation where the energy supply falls short of the demand. India's power industry is facing major challenges like huge supply shortfalls, power theft, poorly planned distribution networks, low metering efficiency, and low bill collection. For India, the smart grid may offer a unique opportunity to leapfrog into a vastly improved electricity environment. A self-healing, more reliable, less constrained, safer, and more efficient grid is in the interest of all stakeholders. The immediate beneficiaries would be the people of India. The design of a sustainable smart grid-model would also provide a blueprint for developing nations. IMS Research Analyst, Nicole Juarez comments, "India's main concern continues to be installing ‘lights on' infrastructure to increase electrification rates or to keep up with rising electricity consumption. This is evident reviewing expenditure on smart grid enabling electronics (including capacitor controls, voltage regulator controls, switch control modules, and digital protective relays) in distribution applications, where investment from countries in Asia is relatively low when compared to other regions globally. However, when taking into account investment in heavy equipment (including switchgear, capacitor banks, voltage regulators, and circuit breakers) Asia is estimated to account for over 60% of global revenue." Smart grid, and specifically distribution automation, is typically seen as a complex, interconnected system with communications and networks which support applications such as volt/VAR optimization and fluid demand-response. But these smart grid applications are not underway and may not even be appropriate for most of India. India's home and small business owners rather are installing their own small generators, and utility grid operators have increased their use of sensors around the grid to help them monitor problems, find trouble spots, predict failures, and respond quickly. "Over the past couple years, India has invested heavily in monitoring of the distribution network in the form of power meters, line monitoring devices, and fault detectors, which allow utilities to help minimize non-technical losses, or theft, and highlight problematic areas," adds Juarez. According to the research report, power meters, line monitoring devices, and fault detectors in Asia accounted for an estimated $58 million in sales in 2011 and are projected to grow to almost $92 million annually by 2017. These may not be interconnected, high-bandwidth, distributed intelligence smart grid applications that are the focus of United States or European discussion, but they solve existing problems to support today's growth. Juarez continues: "It will be interesting to see how India copes with the continuously increasing demand for electricity. Shipments of smart meters expected to begin in earnest within the next five years." "However, investment will remain strong in the short term [for equipment], in efforts to electrify the country, while limiting blackouts, theft, and technical losses." He concludes: "Currently in India, individuals and merchants take a large share of the responsibility in keeping the power on, with a strong example being the distribution of diesel generator sets throughout the country. "Given this established pattern, it might not be much of a leap to envision distributed renewable generation taking off in the not so distant future in India. And when realizing that centralized generation will not be invested in enough to meet forecasted demand, this assertion makes even more sense." Distribution Automation Equipment - 2012 Edition 2nd World Smart Grid Conference. India.