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Government Of Assam Power

Smart Grid for Smart City

Smart Grid for a Smart City

Guwahati has chosen as one of the smart cities under Government of India’s “Smart City Project”.

In a smart city, energy, water, transportation, public health and safety, and other key services are managed in concert to support smooth operation of critical infrastructure while providing for a clean, economic and safe environment in which to live, work and play.

The energy infrastructure is arguably the single most important feature in any city. If unavailable for a significant enough period of time, all other functions will eventually cease.

Smart cities depend on a smart grid to ensure resilient delivery of energy to supply their many functions, present opportunities for conservation, improve efficiencies and, most importantly, enable coordination between urban officialdom, infrastructure operators, those responsible for public safety and the public.

What is a Smart Grid?

A Smart Grid is an electrical grid with automation, communication and IT systems that can monitor power flows from points of generation to points of consumption (even down to the appliances level) and control the power flow or curtail the load to match generation in real time or near real time. The increased visibility, predictability, and even control of generation and demand bring flexibility to both generation and consumption and enable the Utility to better integrate intermittent renewable generation and also reduce cost of peak power.

Smart Grid Pilot Projects in Assam:

Ministry of Power has allocated 14 Smart Grid pilot projects that will be implemented by state-owned distribution utilities in India. Out of these 14 Pilot areas, Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd. (APDCL) is one of them covering approximately 15,000 nos of consumers.

Functionalities chosen for APDCL Pilot:

  • AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) for Residential,
  • AMI for Industrial,
  • Demand Side Management and Demand Response,
  • Peak Load Management,
  • Power Quality Management,
  • Outage Management,
  • Distributed Generation.

APDCL Smart Grid Pilot:

Smart Grid pilot project will be implemented in Guwahati City which will cover the following:

  • 3 Sub-divisions (Paltan bazar, Ulubari & Narengi)
  • 5 Substations at 33/11kV level
  • 6 Substations at 132/33/11kV level
  • 17 nos of 11 kV Feeders
  • Total Consumers covered - 15,083 nos
  • 7876 single phase meters and 7207 three phase meters
  • 1500 high end consumers like Cellular phone operation Towers, Apartment Buildings in Pilot Area, Hotels in the Pilot Area, Bijulee Bhavan, Other few identified bulk customers.

Expected Benefits from Smart Grid Pilot:

Following benefits have been identified to be realized from the Smart Grid Pilot:

  • One of the biggest benefits that we aim to offer to our customers is the fact that the customers participating in the Pilot will be spared of load shedding as they will be participate in load curtailment.
  • Lowering peak load by shifting the load to off-peak periods.
  • Curtailing selective load to help manage peak load in a better fashion.
  • Deferred capital investment by avoided network capacity cost associated with reduced peak demand.
  • Monitoring of Voltage at consumer end and remedial measures wherever necessary for greater consumer satisfaction.
  • Increase in energy served to the industrial and commercial customers leading to increase in collections for APDCL.
  • Reduction in number of outages and faster restoration of outages and hence increase in total energy served to APDCL customers which indirectly increase customer satisfaction.
  • With better data collection from meters, ability to enforce power factor related penalty will increase leading to higher revenues for APDCL.
  • Reduction in AT&C Losses will lead to considerable savings.

The Proposed Smart Grid Pilot is a Technology Trial with scope of addressing a limited set of Business Objectives. While the Success or Failure of the Pilot will primarily be determined by the business benefits realized out of the Pilot, APDCL feels that a successful deployment of the technology in Indian environment, even with limited business success, will be a major achievement.

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