Smart grid pilot project for Mysore

The Ministry of Power, Government of India, has approved a Rs 32 crore smart grid pilot project for Mysore.

The ministry will fund 50 per cent of the project cost while the remaining will come from the Chamundeswari Electricity Supply Company (CESC). It will be the first smart grid pilot for Mysore, said CESC Chief Engineer M Shanthi here. The main objective of the pilot is to improve reliability, manage peak demand, lower electricity costs for consumers, reduce environmental impact like greenhouse gas emissions, to anticipate and respond system disturbances and build operating efficiency of the electric power system, she said. She was speaking at a three-day workshop on 'Smart Grid and Facts' organised by the Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering of the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysore.

The grid would look into user-supplier behaviour and hence will address three major issues of efficiency, reliability and sustainability of power generation and disturbance, Shanthi said. A part of this, CESC's V V Mohalla division would be taken up as a pilot covering Metagalli, Hebbal, Hootagalli industrial area, Jayalakshmipuram, Gokulam, Vontikoppal, Vinayaka Nagar residential and urban areas, and Hoskote and Karakanahally rural areas. In all, 14 feeders and 24,532 consumers, including 580 irrigation pump sets and 504 distribution transformers, would be covered, she added.

In order to integrate renewable energy into the grid, about 8-10 pilot smart grid projects were being implemented across India, according to Bangalore's Power Research & Development Consultants (PRDC) Managing Director R Nagaraja. He said, under 13th Five-Year Plan, Government of India had budgeted Rs 2 lakh crore for smart grid projects across India.

This would harvest more and more renewable energy like solar and wind.

Complementing organisers for conducting the workshop on this new area of smart grid, NIE Managing Committee Vice President M Sreepada Rao said, proper evaluation of the outcome of the workshop would give important pointers for research and development that are relevant to industry and academia.