India smart grid: can it become a reality-

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Abstrac
INDIA SMART GRID
[Can it become a Reality?]
Submitted by,
Mirdul Amin Sarkar
MBA-Power Management
R130215017
Email: mirdul.jntu@gmail.com / mirdulamin15@stu.upes.ac.in

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TABLE OF CONTENTS :
1.Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………..3
2.Background …………………………………………………………………………………5
3.Need for Smart Grids in India :……………………………………………………..6
2.What are the Smart Grid Implementation Challenges in India?.....7
5.Smart Grid Drivers:……………………………………………………………………..8
6.Smart Grid Technologies:…………………………………………………………...9
7.Key Characteristics of Smart Grid:……………………………………………..10
8.Smart Grid and Integration of Renewable Energy Sources:………..11
9.Indian Government Initiatives toward a Smart Grid:…………………11
10. India Smart Grid Vision:…………………………………………………….…..13
11.National smart grid mission:…………………………………………………..14
12.Smart Grid Projects in India:…………………………………………………..14
13.Upcoming/Proposed:………………………………………………………….....16
14. Barriers in implementation of smart grid : …………………………....17
15.Solutions to overcome the barriers in implementation: …………20
16.On-going smart grid activities:………………………………………………..21
17.Recommendations :…………………………………......22
18.Conclusion………………………………………………………..22

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Introduction:
“The time has come to look at Smart Grid as a Necessity rather than
an opportunity’’
There are many ways to look at Smart
Grid reality in India. However, there are
many challenges to it. As per power
ministry, over 18000 villages in India are
still un-electrified. It becomes even more
important to ensure minimal pilferage in
power usage in form of tamper or theft,
wrong billing and delayed payment. In
addition, India having natural advantage
of being close to equator gets abundant
supply of solar power, and if harnessed
efficiently can source all our basic needs
sufficiently.
Consistent high growth of Indian
economy has resulted in a surging
demand for energy. Since, independence
Indian power system has grown from
1362 MW to 308.83 GW. In the past
decade, installation of renewable sources
of energy for electricity has grown at an
annual rate of 25%. Despite this,
presently 400 million people in the
country have no access to electricity and
hundreds of millions get electricity for
only a few hours. Distribution system is
suffering from frequent and long duration
outages. To supplement capacity addition
as well as electrification of remote areas,
development of micro-grid also needs
attention. Standalone/decentralized
micro grid can provide basic energy
access to all. Presently, high AT&C losses
of utilities are resulting into poor
financial health of distribution utilities
across the country. To address these
issues and bring efficiency, seamless
integration of emerging technologies in
the field of monitoring, automation,
control, communication and IT systems
with active participation of all
stakeholders are inevitable. It is expected
that the far-reaching goals of modern
Indian power system can be achieved by
deployment of smart grids which can help
to improve efficiency of Indian power
sector. In this direction, several initiatives
have been taken to implement smart grid
in entire supply value chain - generation,
transmission distribution and consumer
participation in power sector.
Electricity grids around the world are
getting increasingly intelligent and
responsive, ensuring the supply of better,
continuous and cost-efficient power,
while making it possible for both
consumers and suppliers to coexist
happily. In India, where the power sector
faces several challenges— including up to
15 percent peak power shortage, only 75

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percent access to power and nonpolluting
cooking facilities, and high accumulated
losses with the distribution companies
(the state electricity boards)—smart
grids can soon make it possible to ensure
stable, reliable, safe and affordable power
supply using two-way
communication and remote intelligent
sensors to further serve and engage
customers. Indeed, the scenario that we
described may arrive sooner than we
would expect.
India plans to invest billions of dollars
into smart grid development over the
next ten years to get electricity theft
under control. Smart grid market to touch
Rs 50,000 crore in five years from the
present level of sub Rs 100 crore. This
would be fuelled by the government’s
plan of setting up 100 smart cities and
500 smart town.
India today is in a strong position for an
advanced smart grid infrastructure. A few
factors are in the country’s favor:
 Growing pressure to improve
transmission efficiencies
 Increased emphasis on power cost
management and reliability
 Increasing adoption of renewable
energy, including captive micro-
installations in industrial and
residential spaces, which require
options for feeding electricity back into
the grid
 Rapid IT infrastructure growth across
the country, including broadband
access
The industry expects a lot of changes in
smart grid space in the coming years, in
terms of investment and innovation.
Although many advantages of smart grid
technology are apparent, it will merely be
a question of time before everyone agrees
to accept smart grids. This is relatively a
new concept, and the decision making has
been slow. Even companies around the
world have just started gaining
experience in smart grid technologies.
Then there are no established standards
for communication with a smart meter.
The urgency for Smart Grids in India emerges
from the key challenges that the industry is
currently facing. India operates the 3rd
largest transmission and distribution
network in the world, yet faces a number of
challenges such as: inadequate access to
electricity, supply shortfalls (peak and
energy), huge network losses, poor quality
and reliability and rampant, theft. The
evolution towards Smart Grid would address
these issues and transform the existing grid
into a more efficient, reliable, safe and less
constrained grid that would help provide
access to electricity to all.

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2.Background
What is Smart Grids?
Smart Grid uses computer hardware and software, sensors, telecommunication equipment and
services to:
 Helps the customer to manage consumption and use electricity wisely.
 Enables customer to respond to utility that help minimize the period of surpluses,
bottlenecks, and outages.
 Helps utilities in improving their performance and controlling costs by timely availability of
information.
Thus Smart Grids associates customer to electricity by an information rich network. And also it
provides utilities with valuable operational information that helps them to improve efficiency.In a
layman's term Smart Grid is an efficient combination of electrical infrastructure and information
technology.
Figure 1: Smart Grid

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3.Need for Smart Grids in India :
According to the Ministry of Power, India’s
transmission and distribution losses are
amongst the highest in the world, averaging
26 per cent of total electricity production, and
as high as 62 per cent in some states. These
losses do not include non-technical losses like
theft etc.; if such losses are included, the
average losses are as high as 50 per cent.
India losses money for every unit of
electricity sold, since India has one of the
weakest electric grids in the world. Some of
the technical flaws in the Indian power grid
are - it is a poorly planned distribution
network, there is overloading of the system
components, there is lack of reactive power
support and regulation services, there is low
metering efficiency and bill collection, etc.
India is venturing very fast into renewable
energy (RE) resources like wind and solar.
Solar has great potential in India with its
average of 300 solar days per year. The
government is also giving incentives for solar
power generation in the form of subsidies for
various solar applications; and has set a goal
that solar should contribute 7 per cent of
India’s total power production by 2022. With
such high targets, solar is going to play a key
role in shaping the future of India’s power
sector. A lacuna of renewable resources is
that their supply can be intermittent i.e. the
supply can only be harnessed during a
particular part of the day, like day time for
solar energy and windy conditions for
harnessing wind energy, also these conditions
cannot be controlled. With such
unpredictable energy sources feeding the
grid, it is necessary to have a grid that is
highly adaptive (in terms of supply and
demand). Hence, the opportunities for
building smart grids in India are immense, as
a good electric supply is one of the key
infrastructure requirements to support
overall development.

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4.What are the Smart Grid Implementation Challenges in India?
The Power Industry calls for a complete
switch into the next generation through
automation. Despite monetary issues,
power utilities need to begin with basic
automation systems eventually upgrading
to the advanced systems. By analyzing
the growing power demand and market
competence, this is the only way-forward
for the domestic power industry. The
implementation of Smart Grid is not going
to be an easy task as the Indian power
sector poses a number of issues such as
minimizing T&D losses, power theft,
inadequate grid infrastructure, low
metering efficiency and lack of awareness.
Power Theft: Power theft has been one
of the major issues in India. A few ways
to help prevent the power theft are the
use of overhead lines that are insulated
and the LT overhead wires used for
distribution of power could be replaced
with insulated cables in order to minimize
the theft of energy through hooking. The
conventional energy meters could be
replaced with digital tamper proof meters
and the use of prepaid card is yet another
solution to eradicate theft of energy.
Inadequate Grid Infrastructure: For
India to continue along its path of
aggressive economic growth, it needs to
build a modern, intelligent grid. It is only
with a reliable, financially secure Smart
Grid that India can provide a stable
environment for investments in electric
infrastructure - a prerequisite to fixing
the fundamental problems with the grid.
Low metering efficiency: The
commercial losses are mainly due to low
metering efficiency, theft & pilferage. This
may be eliminated by improving metering
efficiency, proper energy accounting &
auditing and improved billing & collection
efficiency. Fixing of accountability of the
personnel / feeder managers may help
considerably in reduction of AT&C loss.
Lack of awareness: The understanding
of consumers on how power is delivered
to their homes is very minimal. Before
implementing Smart Grid concepts, they
should be educated about the Smart
Grids, the benefits of Smart Grid and
Smart Grid’s contribution to low carbon
economy. Consumers should be made
aware about their energy consumption
pattern at home, office etc. Utilities need
to focus on the overall capabilities of
Smart Grids rather than mere
implementation of smart meters. Policy
makers and regulators must be very clear
about the future prospects of Smart Grids.

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5.Smart Grid Drivers:
The drivers for change are both external to the network, like preparing for a low-carbon
future by reducing greenhouse gas, as well as internal, like the need for replacement of an
ageing infrastructure.
Figure 2: Smart Grid Drivers

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6.Smart Grid Technologies:
The many smart grid technology areas – each consisting of sets of individual technologies –
span theentire grid, from generation through transmission and distribution to various
types of electricityconsumers. Some of the technologies are actively being deployed and are
considered mature in both their development and application, while others require further
development and demonstration.

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7.Key Characteristics of Smart Grid:
Smart grid might be defined by its capabilities and operational characteristics rather than by
theuse of any particular technology. Deployment of smart grid technologies will occur over a
longperiod of time, adding successive layers of functionality and capability onto existing
equipment and systems. Technology is the key consideration to build smart grids and it can be
defined by broader characteristics.

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8.Smart Grid and Integration of Renewable Energy Sources:
Renewable-energy resources vary widely in
type and scalability. They include biomass,
waste,geothermal, hydro, solar, and wind.
Renewable-energy resources can be used for
standalone or islanded (system isolated)
power generation, but their benefits are
greatly enhanced when they are integrated
into broader electric power grids. With
greater use of smart grid technologies, higher
degrees and rates of penetration can be
accommodated. Each resource is different
from the grid’s perspective and some are
easier to integrate than others. Variable
generation, provided by many renewable-
energy sources, can be a challenge to electric
system operations, but when used in
conjunction with smart grid approaches,
responsive distributed generation also can be
a benefit to system operations if coordinated
to relieve stress in the system.
9.Indian Government Initiatives toward a Smart Grid:
9.1.India Smart Grid Task Force
(ISGTF):
The Government of India formed the India
Smart Grid Task Force in 2010 as an inter-
ministerial group and will serve as the
government focal point. It is a body composed
of officials from different government
departments and is primarily meant for
understanding and advocating policies in
smart grid technologies. Major functions of
the ISGTF are:
a. Ensure awareness, coordination, and
integration of diverse activities related to
smart grid technologies
b. Promote practices and services for R&D of
smart grids
c. Coordinate and integrate other relevant
intergovernmental activities
d. Collaborate on an interoperability
framework
e. Review and validate recommendations
from the India Smart Grid Forum.
9.2. India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF):
The Government of India also formulated the
India Smart Grid Forum in 2010 as a non-
profit, voluntary consortium of public and
private stakeholders with the prime objective
of accelerating development of smart grid
technologies in the Indian power sector. The
ISGF has roles and responsibilities
complementary to the ISGTF. The goal of the
Forum is to help the Indian power sector to
deploy Smart Grid technologies in an efficient,
cost-effective, innovative and scalable
manner by bringing together all the key
stakeholders and enabling technologies.
The India Smart Grid Forum will coordinate
and cooperate with relevant global and
Indian bodies to leverage global experience
and standards where ever available or
helpful, and will highlight any gaps in the
same from an Indian perspective.

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9.3 Distribution Reform, Upgrades,
and Management (DRUM):
The Ministry of Power, Government of India,
and the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID)–India jointly designed
the Distribution Reform, Upgrades and
Management (DRUM) Project with the
purpose of demonstrating “the best
commercial and technological practices that
improve the quality and reliability of 'last
mile' power distribution in selected urban
and rural distribution circles in the country.”
The project is in synch with the Indian
Government's policy on power sector
reforms, the Electricity Act of 2003, and the
Re-Structured Accelerated Power
Development and Reforms Program (R-
APDRP) scheme. The overall programmatic
goal of the DRUM Project is to demonstrate
commercially viable electricity distribution
systems that provide reliable power of
sufficient quality to consumers and to
establish a commercial framework and a
replicable methodology adopted by India’s
financial institutions for providing non-
recourse financing of DRUM activities and
programs.
9.4 Re-Structured Accelerated
Power Development and Reforms
Program (R-APDRP):
Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, as a part of
Reforms in the Power Sector, has launched
the RAPDRP in the XI Five year Plan. The
focus of the program is on the actual
demonstrable performance in terms of AT&C
loss reduction, establishment of the reliable
and automated sustainable systems for
collection of base line data, adoption of
information technology in the areas of
electricity accounting, Consumer care and
strengthening of Distribution network of
State Power Utilities.
Projects under the scheme shall be taken up
in two parts. Part-A shall include the projects
for establishment of baseline data and IT
applications for energy accounting/auditing
& IT based consumer service centres. Part-B
shall include regular distribution
strengthening projects.

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10. India Smart Grid Vision:
India Smart Grid Forum in consultation with India Smart Grid Task Force has formulated a
comprehensive smart grid vision and roadmap for India which is aligned to Government’s
overarching objectives of “Access, Availability and Affordability of Power for All”
The Roadmap was approved by Ministry of Power in August 2013 and it was released by
the Power Minister on 10thSept 2013 in a conference of all state power ministers in Delhi
Smart Grid Vision for India
“Transform the Indian power sector into a secure, adaptive,
sustainable and digitally enabled ecosystem that provides reliable and
quality energy for all with active participation of stakeholders”

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11.National smart grid mission:
Role of National Smart Grid Mission(NSGM):
 Pre-feasibility study
 Technology selection
 Cost-Benefit analysis
 Financing models
 Training & capacity building
 Technology selection guide lines & best practices
 Consumer awareness
 Project appraisal post implementation
12.Smart Grid Projects in India:
12.1.Running/Implemented:
Fig: Major Initiatives taken for Smart Grid Implementation in India

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13.Upcoming/Proposed:
ISGTF has shortlisted 14 Smart Grid pilot projects for Power Distribution segment on January
2013 ascompared to the 8 planned initially, the number of projects have been increased to expand
the scope of these pilots to reflect diversity in project profiles. The projects will receive fund under
the R-APDRP and a matching financial support from the states.
Fig: List of 14 shortlisted smart grid pilot projects

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14. Barriers in implementation of smart grid :
14.1.Policy and regulation
The current policy and regulatory
frameworks were typically designed to deal
with the existing networks and utilities.To
some extent the existing model has
encouraged competition in generation and
supply of power but is unable to promote
clean energy supplies. With the move
towards smart grids, the prevailing policy
andregulatory frameworks must evolve in
order to encourage incentives for
investment. Thenew frameworks will need
to match the interests of the consumers
with the utilities and suppliers to ensure
that thesocietal goals are achieved at the
lowest cost to the consumers.
Generally,governments set policy whereas
regulatorsmonitor the implementation in
order to protect the consumers andseeks to
avoid market exploitation. Over the last two
decades,the trend of liberalized market
structure in various parts of theworld has
focused the attention of policy-makers
onempowering competition and consumer
choice. The regulatorymodels have evolved
to become more and more effectiveto avoid
market abuse and to regulatethe rates of
return. Moving forward, the regulatory
model will have to adopt the policy which
focuses much onlong term carbon
reductionand security of supply in
thedefined outcomes and they need to
rebalance theregulatory incentives to
encourage privately financedutilities to
invest at rates of return that are

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commensurateto the risk. This may mean creatingframeworks that allow risk to
be shared betweencustomers
andshareholders, so that risks and rewards
are balanced providing least aggregate cost
to the customer.
Business Scenario :
Themajority of examples results in negative
business cases, undermined by two
fundamental challenges:
 High capital and operating costs –
Capital and operating costs include
large fixed costs linked to the
chronic communications network.
Hardware costs do not cause in
significant growths in economies of
scaleand software integration
possess a significant delivery and
integration risks.
 Benefits are constrained by the
regulatoryframework – When
calculating the benefits,
organizations tend to be
conservative in what theycan gather
as cash benefits to the shareholders.
Forexample, in many cases, line
losses are considered to be put on to
the customer and as a result
anydrop in losses would have no net
impact on theutility shareholder.
The smart gridbenefits case may
begin on a positive note but, as
misalignedpolicy and regulatory
incentives are factored in,
theinvestment becomes less
attractive. Therefore regulators are
required to place such policies and
regulations in place which could
provide benefits both to the utilities
and the consumers. Therefore the
first factor to be considered is to
provide incentives to the utilities in
order to remove inefficiencies from
the system. They should be
aptlyremunerated for the line losses
on their networks.
On the budget side of the calculation, there
is no avoiding the fact that smart
technologies are expensive to implement,
and at the present level it is right to factor
inthe risk associated with delivery. But the
policy makers and regulators can mitigate
that risk by seeking economies of scale and
implementing advanced digital
technologies.
Technology maturity and delivery risk :
Technology is one of the essential
constituents of Smart Grid which include a
broad range of hardware, software, and
communication technologies.Insome cases,
the technology is well developed;
however,in many areas the technologies are
still at a very initial stage of development
and are yet to be developedtoa
significantlevel. As the
technologiesadvances, it will reduce the
delivery risk; but till then risk factor have to
be included in the business situation. On
the hardware side, speedy evolution of
technology is seen from vendors all over
the world. Many recently evolved
companies have become moreskeptical to
the communications solutions and
havefocused on operating within a suite of
hardware andsoftware solutions. Moreover
the policy makers, regulators, and utilities
look upon well-established hardware
providers for Smart Grid
implementation.And this trend is expected
to continue with increasingcompetition
from Asian manufacturers and, as
aconsequence, standards will naturally
form andequipment costs will drop as
economies of scale arisesand competition
increases. On the software and data
management side, the majorchallengeis to
overcome the integration of the entire
hardware system and to managehigh
volume of data. With multiple software
providers come multiple data formats and
the need for complex data models. In

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addition, the proliferation of data puts
stresses on the data management
architecture that are much similar to the
telecommunications industry than the
utilities industry. Many of these issues are
currently being addressed in pilots such as
SmartGrid task force and, as a consequence,
the delivery risk will reduce as standards
will be set up.
Lack of awareness
Consumer’s level of understanding about
how power is delivered to their homes is
often low. So before going forward and
implementing Smart Grid concepts, they
should be made aware about what Smart
Grids are? How Smart Grids can contribute
to low carbon economy? What benefits they
can drive from Smart Grids? Therefore:
 Consumers should be made aware
about their energy consumption
pattern at home, offices...etc.
 Policy makers and regulators must
be very clear about the future
prospects of Smart Grids.
 Utilities need to focus on the overall
capabilities of Smart Grids rather
than mere implementation of smart
meters. They need to consider a
more holistic view.
Access to affordable capital
Funds are one of the major roadblocks in
implementation of Smart Grid. Policy
makers and regulators have to make more
conducive rules and regulations in order to
attract more and more private players.
Furthermore the risk associated with Smart
Grid is more; but in long run it is expected
that risk-return profile will be closer to the
current situation as new policy framework
will be in place and risk will be optimally
shared across the value chain.
In addition to this, the hardware
manufacturers are expected to invest more
and more on mass production and R&D
activities so that technology obsolescence
risk can be minimized and access to the
capital required for this transition is at
reasonable cost.
Skills and knowledge
As the utilities will move towards Smart
Grid, there will be a demand for a new skill
sets to bridge the gap and to have to
develop new skills in analytics, data
management and decision support. To
address this issue, a cadre of engineers and
managers will need to be trained to manage
the transition. This transition will require
investment of both time and money from
both government and private players to
support education programs that will help
in building managers and engineers for
tomorrow. To bring such a change utilities
have to think hard about how they can
manage the transition in order to avoid
over burdening of staff with change.
Cyber security and data privacy
With the transition from analogous to
digital electricity infrastructure comes the
challenge of communication security and
data management; as digital networks are
more prone to malicious attacks from
software hackers, security becomes the key
issue to be addressed.
In addition to this; concerns on invasion of
privacy and security of personal
consumption data arises. The data collected
from the consumption information could
provide a significant insight of consumer’s
behavior and preferences. This valuable
information could be abused if correct
protocols and security measures are not
adhered to.
If above two issues are not addressed in a
transparent manner, it may create a
negative impact on customer’s perception
and will prove to be a barrier for adoption

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15.Solutions to overcome the
barriers in implementation:
Despite the challenges mentioned above, there
are anumber of steps that can be taken tospeed
up the implementation of smart grid
technologies. Foremost step that is required to
be taken is that policy-makers andregulators
need to restructure the economic incentives
and align riskand reward across the value
chain. By building the righteconomic
environment for the private sector investment
andfocusing more broadly about the way that
social valuecases are created and presented
implementation would become much easier.
By analyzing thesesolutions in bigger
environments i.e. in cities, the entireindustry
will learn what it takes to implement smart
gridssuccessfully and will result in developing
an industrythat is set to boomin the
comingperiods.
15.1.Forming Political and Economic
Frameworks:
Policy makers and regulators have to
implement a framework which optimally
spread the risk over the whole value chain i.e.
to guard the investors from risk and to yield
the result at lower cost to the customers. They
have to form a robust incentive model in order
to attract more and more private investment.
Also rate of return should be based on the
output generated. Rewards and penalty
mechanism should be considered in order to
monitor the performance of the utilities and to
encourage them to deliver the outcomes in the
most efficient manner. Technological and
delivery risk associated with Smart Grid are
significant. And this can be overcome over a
due course of time as more issues arise and are
addressed. Risks associated with Smart Grid
have to be shared by every member across the
value chain. While making the framework
regulators must consider how much of that
risk a utility can pass on to the contractors,
suppliers and consumers. By maintaining the
proper balance, there will be an improved
alignment of the incentives. And further they
have to tackle numerous policy disputes and
recommend potential solutions.
15.2.Moving Towards a Societal Value
System:
The major challenge for the transition from
analogous to digital infrastructure will be to
move from utility-centric investment decision
to societal-level decisions which determine
wider scopes of the Smart Grid. This would
help in the accelerated adoption of Smart Grid
Technology by the society.
15.3.Achieving greater efficiency in energy
delivery :
Smart Grid Technology should consider
building greater efficiency into the energy
system which would result in reduction of
losses, peak load demand and thereby
decreasing generation as well as consumption
of energy. New regulatory framework which
incentivizes utilities for reducing the technical
losses would help utilities to perform more
efficiently.
15.4.Enabling distributed generation and
storage:
Smart grids will change where, when and how
energy is produced. Each household and
business will be empowered to become a
micro-generator. Onsite photovoltaic panels
and small-scale wind turbines are the
predominant examples; developing resources
consist of geothermal, biomass, hydrogen fuel
cells, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and
batteries. As the cost of traditional energy
sources continues to rise and the cost of
distributed generation technologies falls, the
economic situation for this evolution will
build.
15.5.Increasing Awareness on Smart Grids:

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There is an imperative need to make the
society and the policy makers aware about the
capabilities of a Smart Grid. The main step is
to form a perfect, universal description onthe
common principles of a smart grid.Beyond
agreement ona characterization, the matter
also needs to be debated moreholistically as a
true enabler to the low-carbon economy,rather
than as an investment decision to be taken
within the meeting room of distinct
utilities.The importance of consumer
education is not to be underestimated.The
formation of user-friendly andstate-of-the-art
products and services will play a
significantrole in convincing the societyabout
Smart Grids. Also the utilities are required to
scrutinize the major challenges in
implementation of Smart Grid and their
impact on their business model and
operations.
15.6.Creating a Fresh Pool of Skills
andKnowledge :
Successful implementation of the smart grid
will require alarge number of highly skilled
engineers and managers mainly thosewho are
trained to work on transmission and
distribution networks.As a result to on-
jobtraining and employees development will
be vitalacross the industry. Simultaneously,
there is a requirement forinvestment in the
development of relevant
undergraduate,postgraduate and vocational
training to make sure theavailability of a
suitableworkforcefor the future. The
investment in T&D should not be limited and
neither in research and knowledge
development, which would be essential for the
development of this sector.
15.7.Addressing Cyber security Risks
andData Privacy Issues
Smart Grid success depends on the successful
handling of two major IT issues:
 Security
 Integration and data handling
With increase in computers and
communication networks comes the increased
threat of cyber-attack. The Government should
look into this matter because
consumer’sconsumption data can be misused
by the utilities and the third party. Utilities
have to give assurance to the consumers that
their valuable information is handled by
authorized party in ethical manner. The
government has to adopt high standard level in
order to withstand cyber-attacks.
16.On-going smart grid activities:
 APDRP, R-APDRP initiative for distribution reform (AT&C focus)
 DRUM India – Distribution Reform Upgrade, Management
 Four pilot sites (North Delhi, Bangalore, Gujarat, Maharashtra)
 Smart Grid Vision for India
 Smart Grid Task Force – Headed by Sam Pitroda
 BESCOM project – Bangalore – Integration of renewable and distributed energy
resources into the grid
 KEPCO project in Kerala India - $10 Billion initiative for Smart-Grid
 L&T and Telvent project – Maharashtra – Distribution Management System roll-out
 Distributed generation via roof-top solar for 40% in a micro-grid

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17.Recommendations :
Regulators
 Create a regulatory framework which
aligns incentives of each member in
the value chain.
 Allocate risk and reward efficiently.
 Consider both utilities and customer
while making policies.
 Adopt output based regulatory system
(Reward/Penalties) which stresses on
utilities to perform better.
Utilities
 Adopt more holistic approach about
Smart Grids, so that they can convey
its future benefits to the customers.
 Reduce the risk of
technologyobsolescence by R&D
activities.
 Undertake large scale pilot projects
and analyze the benefits.
 Transformation from utility-centric
investment decision to societal-level
decisions.
Vendors
 Required to play important role in
policy making process
 To help utilities to adopt flexible
design and compatibility of Smart
Grid fast.
 To convince customers about the
acceptance of changing trend by
product and service offering.
Customers
 Plays critical role by demanding for
more flexible service.
 To encourage more players to enter in
this field and in order to make the
market competitive.
 To help utilities and regulators to set
goals and make conducive policies.
 To increase the awareness in society.
18.Conclusion:
“Smart Grid is a technology that will solve many issues once it
becomes a Reality in India’’
It is high time that we start looking at smart grid as a necessity then an opportunity. With
an exponentially increasing demand of power, the supply and pilferage needs to be catered
with whatever it takes. For power sector to continue on the path of economic growth,
deployment and adoption of latest technologies, introduction of more intelligence into the
grid in the form of Smart Grid are inevitable.
The smart grid shall bring efficiency and sustainability in power sector, meeting the
growing electricity demand with reliability, resilience, stability and best of the quality
while reducing the electricity bill of a consumer. It also enables consumer participation in
energy management.

23. 23
BIBILOGRAPHY
 http://mnre.gov.in/file-manager/akshay-urja/july-august-
2011/EN/Smart%20Grid%20in%20India.pdf
 http://www.nsgm.gov.in//upload/files/India-Smart-Grid-Vision-and-
Roadmap.pdf
 http://ictpost.com/its-time-for-the-electric-grid-to-smarten-up-in-
india-2/
 http://www.desismartgrid.com/2014/03/can-smart-grid-technology-immersion-
linked-better-progress-nation/
 http://smartgrid-for-india.blogspot.in/
 http://www.iitk.ac.in/npsc/Papers/NPSC2014/1569993451.pdf
 http://asian-power.com/power-utility/commentary/reality-check-are-indian-utilities-
prepared-smart-metering
 http://asian-power.com/power-utility/commentary/reality-check-are-indian-utilities-
prepared-smart-metering
 http://www.nsgm.gov.in//upload/files/India-Smart-Grid-Vision-and-Roadmap.pdf