SMART GRID FOR DARK INDIA

India’s Massive Blackout Calls for Smarter Grid, From the Bottom Up; A 600-million-person blackout lays out the severity and scope of India’s grid challenges. Microgrids and solar power could help.

Jeff St. John, July 31, 2012 (Greentech Media)

“…[W]hen the power went out across eight northern Indian states early Monday morning, leaving some 370 million people in the dark, most of the critical facilities -- Delhi’s international airport, hospitals and police stations, large-scale commercial and industrial power users and higher-end homes and apartments -- were ready to go with backup generators…[because] everyday people were stuck with no light, no heat, and no public transportation…Then, on Tuesday, things got worse, with a 20-state blackout that cut power for anywhere between 620 million and 680 million people -- about half of India’s population…[S]ome hospitals lost power, and coal miners were trapped…Only about 40 percent of power was back up by mid-afternoon.

“…Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the new crisis on states taking more than their allotted share of electricity, and other officials said grid faults were likely to blame, but didn’t know where they were or how many…Could smart grid technologies help solve the problems that caused these blackouts? …[I]t’s likely that more grid monitors and sensors could make that fault detection task easier…Beyond that, however, there’s a world of work to do. India’s grid is a mess, with money-losing economics, daily power outages, and technical and non-technical power losses (i.e.,inefficiency and theft) that add up to 20 percent to 50 percent of all power generated, compared to the United States' (almost all technical) losses of 7 percent or so.”

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“…[M]ore than half of India’s power comes from coal…[but a coal shortage] has driven up prices…[Drought] has left the country’s hydroelectric dams -- some 19 percent of its generation mix -- without the water they need to generate power…India’s peak power demand has been outstripping supply by about 9 percent…India’s fast-growing technology sector has had to build its own power plants…[M]icrogrids -- islands of power generation and consumption that can run themselves, or maybe help the grid when it’s stressed -- are how India’s grid is going to get smart…Some grid projects are underway. In March, Siemens announced an 18.5 million euro ($24.3 million) contract…to give the grid sensors and communications…Indian IT giants like Wipro, Infosys, HCL and TCS are deploying technology…[but] the government has scaled back…

“Perhaps solar-equipped microgrids could help solve the problem. India is emerging as a hotbed for off-grid solar power, with the potential for installing more than 1 gigawatt per year by 2016…[H]ospitals, factories, government buildings and apartment blocks could also generate their own power…India’s government wants to boost solar power from today’s 1,000 megawatts to 20,000 megawatts by 2022. Still, solar’s economics face challenges in India, including a split between state government incentives for power and the prices that power is actually bought and sold at on the nation’s grid system…[W]hether solar power as a microgrid backup, rather than a grid resource, can make the economics work is a more difficult question…”

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