Now, a weather portal to aid discoms in power management

The government today launched a portal on weather information that will help discoms manage power distribution accordingly.
The weather information on the portal will also help in better planning for infrastructure availability to ensure cost effective and reliable supply, the power ministry said in a statement.
"Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, launched weather portal for power sector in association with POSOCO and IMD at the meeting of the Forum of Regulators here today," the statement said.
Day to day weather variations have an impact on load demand and energy production, transport and distribution management as well as energy prices.

Extreme events such as heat waves or cold waves, wind storms or floods can have dramatic consequences on the production means or the electrical grid of a country, including physical damage to the infrastructure.
"The information available on the portal regarding weather forecast shall help state discoms to take pro-active steps regarding short term and medium term management processes and supply planning requirements and also for better planning for infrastructure availability to ensure cost effective and reliable supply," the statement added.

The portal provides regional weather outlook for current day and up to next 7 days. Weather stations of meteorological department have been mapped to the nearest important electrical station/power stations in each state.

During the meeting Goyal launched another portal 'MERIT' (Merit Order Dispatch of Electricity for Rejuvenation of Income and Transparency).
The portal has been developed by the power ministry in association with POSOCO and Central Electricity Authority.
The MERIT portal displays extensive array of information regarding the merit order of electricity procured by state(s) such as daily state-wise marginal variable costs of all generators, daily source-wise power purchases of respective states/UTs with source-wise fixed and variable costs, energy volumes and purchase prices, according to the statement.
The web-portal also give information regarding reasons for deviation from merit order such as must run conditions, transmission constraints etc.

Information available in the portal will help state discoms to optimise their power procurement in more efficient way, leading to lower cost of power to consumers.
It will also facilitate must run status for hydro and renewables and will promote use of green and clean power more transparently.
It will also promote competition for lower costs as information will be available to all stakeholders, including generators and utilities for more efficient procurement. Since the information will be available to all consumers on continuous basis, it will create pressure on utilities for continued efficiency.