Its All About Power Sector

Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India in Coming Five Year Plans

The most discussed topic by the budding young mangers of power is smart grids and reason being the vision, "Access, Availability and afforadability of Quality Power for All". Below is a description on how India has planned the roadmap  to achieve a complete smart grid in India in the five year plans. This is only a snapshot of the visionary document.

The roadmap is aligned to the Ministry of Power's overarching policy of "Access, Availability and afforadability of Quality Power for All" and it prescribes different technologies that would help achieve these objectives in time bound manner. This roadmap has placed highest importance to providing supply of electricity to all households by 2017 through smartgrid technologies. Ministry of Power is committed to working with all the state governments, Regulators and utilities to implement the programmes and policies envisaged in the smartgrid reoadmap.

Highlights of Smart Grid Milestones and Activities

During 12th Five Year plan	During 13th Five Year plan	During 14th Five Year plan
A) Enable Access and Availability of Quality Power for All
• Electrification of all households by 2017 • Reduction in power cuts; 24 hrs availability of power at principal cities, 22 hrs for all towns and Life line supply (8 hrs, including evening peak) to all by 2017	• 24 hour supply in all urban areas; Minimum 12 hour supply to all consumers (including evening peak) by 2022	•Stable and quality 24x7 power supply to all categories of consumers across the country
B) Loss Reduction
• Reduction of AT&C losses in all Distribution Utilities to below 15% • Reduction of transmission losses (66 kV or above) to below 4%	• Reduction of AT&C losses in all Distribution Utilities to below 12% • Reduction of transmission losses (66 kV or above) to below 3.5%	• Reduction of AT&C losses to below 10% in all Distribution Utilities • Reduction of transmission losses (66 kV or above) to below 3%
C) Smart Grid Rollouts including Automation, Microgrids and other improvements
• SG Pilots, full SG roll out in pilot project cities • Infrastructure for AMI roll out for all consumers with load >20kW or as per prioritised target areas of Utilities • Deployment of Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS) • Development of micro grids in 1,000 villages/industrial parks/commercial hubs • Enablement of “Prosumers” in select areas	• SG roll out in all urban areas • Nationwide AMI roll out for customers with 3-phase connections. • Deployment of WAMS at all substations and grid connected generation units • Development of micro grids in total 10,000 villages/industrial parks/commercial hubs • Enablement of “Prosumers” in metros and major urban areas	• SG rollout nationwide • Nationwide AMI roll out for all customers • Development of micro grids in 20,000 villages/industrial parks/commercial hubs • Active Participation of “Prosumers”
D) Policies and Tariffs
• Implementation of Dynamic Tariffs • Mandatory Demand Response programs for select categories of consumers •Tariff mechanism for roof top solar PV's – Net Metering/Feed in Tariffs	• Choice of electricity supplier (open access) to consumers in metros and select urban areas • Mandatory Demand Response programs for larger sections of consumers	• Choice of electricity supplier (open access) to all consumers
E) Green Power and Energy Efficiency
• Renewable integration of 30 GW • Energy Efficiency Programs for lighting and HVAC in Metros and state capitals; initiation of Dynamic (smart) Energy Efficiency Programs • Policies for mandatory roof top PV and Energy efficient building code for all new large public infrastructures by 2014	• Renewable integration of 80 GW • Energy Efficiency Programs for lighting and HVAC in all urban areas; expansion of Dynamic (smart) Energy Efficiency Programs to all urban areas	• Renewable integration of 130 GW • Dynamic (smart) Energy Efficiency Programs nationwide
F) Electric Vehicles and Energy Storage
• Development of EV and smart grid synergy plan (in coordination with National Electric Mobility Mission) • EV charging stations in urban areas and along selected highways • Introduction of Battery Parks and other Energy Storage Systems on trial basis	• Large roll outs of Energy Storage Systems • EV charging stations in all urban areas and strategic locations on highways	• EV charging stations in all urban areas and along all state and national highways
G) Enablers and Other Initiatives
• First set of technical standards after completion of pilots, including standards for EVs and its charging infrastructure • Cost-Benefit Analysis of smart grid projects with inputs from the pilots and assessment of direct and indirect benefits to consumers and other stakeholders • Development of indigenous low cost smart meter by 2014 • Finalization of frameworks for cyber security assessment, audit and certification of power utilities by 2013 • Initiation of Customer Outreach and Engagement Programs • Research & Development, Training & Capacity Building - 10% Utility technical personnel to be trained in smart grid technologies	• Standards Development for Smart Infrastructure (SEZ, Buildings, Roads/Bridges, Parking lots, Malls) • Export of SG products, solutions and services • Development of business models to create alternate revenue streams by leveraging the smart grid infrastructure to offer other services (security solutions, water metering, traffic solutions etc) to municipalities, state governments and other agencies; integration of meter data with other databases etc.	• Continuous Research & Development; Training & Capacity Building