ISUW 2019

Machine Learning (ML) is a technique that employs computational statistics to learn the pattern of data and from there it tends to predict. Over last few years, abundance of data have been made available in standard format and therefore it is compelling to use ML techniques to achieve better prediction. In several instances we have witnessed 98–99% accuracy in prediction levels using ML techniques. In Utility Industry, one of the key parameter every DISCOM would like to forecast is Peak Load. Since HT (>11 kVA) and EHT (Extra High Tension > 66 kVA) customers in the designated DISCOM region demand continuous power supply, reducing interruption hours and feeder outages are two most important factors draw attentions of Utility Service Providers. It has been found that accurate prediction of Peak Load Demand for a day ahead can remarkably reduce the above two parameters. In fact, knowing the peak load in advance can help in optimizing the load distribution at substation levels. While predicting peak load, we should consider weather (Temperature), time of the day (expressed in HH:MM format), Day type (Weekdays or Weekends) and finally kWH of a DT.

The smart grid future is forecasted to be mix of traditional central generation with a large network of distributed energy resources such as rooftop and community solar, microgrids and responsive loads. By utilizing micro-Distributed Energy Resources (DER), such as solar PV, energy storage, renewable energy sources fossil-fueled generators and combined heat and power plants, microgrids can supply local electrical and heat loads in local areas in an economic and environment friendly way. Significant technical challenges arise in the operation, planning and control of microgrids, due to the intermittent behaviour of renewable power generation and the minimum SOC limit of energy storage devices. The two-way communication and coordination between DER nodes capability of the microgrid provides a feasible solution to can address these challenges. The MicroGrid Central Controller (MGCC) provides autonomous coordination of the DER to serve the critical and non-critical loads economically in islanded and grid-connected modes. The proposed platform can be deployed locally or in a Virtual Private Cloud. The platform has a default optimizer (economic dispatch engine) where the operator can set thresholds and triggers to dispatch based on user-defined rules. The system is designed so that the optimization engine can be readily replaced as more efficient algorithms are developed. Device-to-device communication employs Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB) measurement and control profiles. OpenFMB is a distribution network communication standard based on IEC CIM and IEC 61850. Use of OpenFMB eases interoperability with system operators and third-party service providers (aggregators).

A Micro grid is a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within a clearly defined electrical boundaries that act as a single controllable entity with respect to the grid. In AC and DC Micro grids multiple reverse conversions are required in an individual AC/DC loads. This may add additional losses to the system operation and make current home and office appliances more complicated. As a result, system co-ordination becomes too difficult in conventional micro grid. To overcome this drawbacks, hybrid micro grid which is an integral part of the smart grid is the most suitable solution to provide for the increasing penetration of DC-compatible energy sources, storage and loads which is recently prevalent in all Electric Power Industries. One of the most important feature of hybrid micro grid is advanced structure which can facilitate the connection of various AC, DC generation systems with optimal asset utilization and operation efficiency. It consists of both AC and DC networks connected together by multi bi-directional converters. AC sources and loads are connected to the AC networks. Similarly DC sources and loads are connected to the DC networks. Energy storage system can be connected to the DC or AC links. In this paper DC/DC converter with High frequency transformer is used to replace a normal conventional bulky transformer for bus voltage matching and galvanic isolation. Among different DHFT topologies, CLLC-TYPE has been suggested for its bidirectional power flow, seamless transition and low switching losses. DHFT open-loop control has been performed to simplify the systematic co-ordination and provide a smooth power transfer between AC/DC links. It has been designed in order to maximize the conversion efficiency and minimize the output voltage variations in different load conditions. Thus the hybrid micro grid has been simulated and analyzed using Simulink in MATLAB.

Virtual Rooftop Solar Power Projects restores balance of subsidizing consumers and subsidized consumers for a DISCOM to operate. Innovation of Retail Solar Power Exchange provides operative mechanism for trading the credited solar power for the investors and other stakeholders.

Energy storage system (ESS) is an essential component of smart micro grid for compensating intermittent renewable generation and continuous power supply. Batteries are most commonly used in ESS. For optimal energy management of micro grid, the optimization algorithm needs knowledge of battery parameters like state of charge (SOC), voltage, temperature etc. Further for implementing various control and stability strategies, there is need of communication of battery parameters among various components of micro grid. With knowledge of battery parameter, grid operator can make better utilization of available ESS resources and also reduce renewable curtailment. A smart battery management system (BMS) is developed which calculates and communicates battery parameters. Various communication protocols namely Modbus, CAN, Ethernet and Wifi are incorporated in the smart BMS which makes it compatible for many applications. Smart BMS additionally performs active cell balancing using cell to cell balancing topology. The BMS is successfully implemented in a smart micro grid in India and the findings of the implementation are discussed in this paper. They serve as the foundation for further implementation of optimal energy management in the smart micro grid for minimizing operation costs.

India is a big country having huge renewable energy potential of 2600 GW, sufficient for world power requirement of today. Most of the power potential comes under solar, wind and hydro energy. Himalayan region is full of hydro power and small currents have been estimated to generate 20 GW of renewable power along with large hydro of 145 GW. The hydro power remains cheapest of all renewable power even today. As per small hydro power policy of India, any corporate or individual person can put up a small hydro power plant up to 25 MW after identifying the potential of any current/river suitable for the project. If the small hydro power plant in Himalayan region is coupled with hydrogen energy storage and electric vehicle charging stations along the mountain roads, it will give very economic viability of the project. The power cost of hydroelectric comes to merely INR 1.0 (USD 1.3 cents) per unit. The cheap power can be utilized to charge electric vehicles and to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen generated at the hydro power station will be quite cheap to replace the LPG cylinder for cooking and commercial purposes in the Himalayas. Additionally, the electric vehicle charging project will give another boost to clean transport in the region, reducing global warming effect in the area. The hybrid electric vehicles can also utilize Hydrogen for on the way recharging through hydrogen fuel cells. This will pave the way for 100% renewable economy in future.

The recent advances in electric vehicles (EVs) technologies like batteries, increase in greenhouse gas emissions and increase in fossil fuel prices have caused the more interest in using EVs. But the charging of these EVs may put an additional requirement on the existing electricity grid. Therefore, the power grid must be ready for these challenges. In order to know the type of EVs charging infrastructure required for India, the distribution feeder ratings and different charging levels should be studied. The impact of number of EVs i.e. penetration impact on Indian distribution grid will be analysed. This will lead to identification of different issues due to charging. A typical Indian distribution network will be modelled in OpenDSS. The critical infrastructure issues like voltage profile at different nodes, transformer loading, peak load and power losses will be investigated for different penetration levels. Finally, the results will be analyzed to mitigate the impacts and to suggest various measures.

In the current scenario of the energy market, the availability of the energy-usage data of a consumer is limited. Utilities maintain the historical energy-usage data to some extent but the data is at the service address level and not at the consumer level. The historical data is available only for the period the consumer stays with the utility and the consumer cannot carry along when he moves to a different utility in a different region. The data format and the period of historical data maintained is inconsistent and is dependent on the utilities. In this paper, we propose a solution to maintain the energy-usage history of a consumer at a global level independent and irrespective of the utilities and regions using Blockchain technology with an emphasis on the data standards. The consumer who is the owner of the historical data can authorise the market participants to access and utilise the data for a meaningful purpose.

While the pollution is increasing resulting in green house gases and global warming, the amount of electric vehicle is predicted to increase. Most of the electric cars are design for urban use, and these vehicles need to be recharged in evening or during night, so the electric vehicles will interact with grid during this period. This process will impact the network voltage profiles and loading of grid elements. Existing Grids were designed several decades ago, so it becomes necessary to take a note of this that whether they will be able to support this increased loading, or is there a requirement of reconstruction to meet this demand. Most consumers will prefer charging during night time at their premises itself, which is LV system. And which operates at 230 V. So LV grid is taken in consideration to understand the impact of charging electric vehicles. As loads is connected to different phases, so there will be a phase asymmetry in the network. This asymmetry can be reduced by proper planning of the grid. Injection of electrical vehicle into the grid will also have an impact on power factor. As some consumers turn on or off their electric vehicles, the overall power factor changes. This has to be considered as this impact the reactive power consumption. With increase in the number of electric cars, the loading characteristics of transformer changes. For this work grid without electric vehicle and with electric vehicle is considered and Grid parameters are analysed.

Just a few years ago it was extremely difficult to monitor and control the distributed substations. The reason for this was that the remote systems were either unable to communicate with a control center or communication involved a great deal of efforts and expense. The technological advancement in communication system and Information technology, the application of Remote Operation of all Substations can be adopted which in turn optimized the requirement of skilled manpower, virtual management of Substations and assets can be managed with better efficiency. Remote control technology describes the remote monitoring and control of physically separate system parts by means of data transmission. Measured values and control commands are transmitted over long distances and visualized, processed and stored in control center.

The fuel efficiency and performance of novel vehicles with electric propulsion capability are largely limited by the performance of Energy Storage System. The battery system choice is a crucial item but no single type of energy storage element fulfils high energy density, high power delivery capacity, low cost per unit of storage, long cycle life, low leakage, and so on at the same time. One of the best solution is to use a Hybrid Energy Storage System. The main objective is to design of a hybrid electrical energy storage system which gives substantial benefits against battery issues such as reduction in battery stress. Also to maintain battery current as constant as possible during transients to limit battery stress. On the other hand supercapacitor has capability to charge as fast as possible without exceeding maximum current from regenerative breaking and to discharge most of its stored energy during acceleration. Adding supercapacitor bank will assist the battery during vehicle acceleration and hill climbing and with its quick recharge capability, it will assist the battery in capturing the regenerative breaking energy. This significant advantage a battery-supercapacitor energy storage system gained attention. Battery and supercapacitor sizing includes the most important and difficult steps is, the determination of the numbers of batteries and supercapacitor connected in series and parallel. The power management is essentially the optimal distribution of power between battery and supercapacitor. With supercapacitor added into the hybrid energy storage system, battery workload is reduced, which leads to significant extension of battery life.

Electric vehicle development has started in India. The Government of India has announced policies to promote electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are no different from other vehicles except they require charging. The charging is mostly controlled using microcontroller based systems in both vehicle and charging station. The paper proceeds to briefly describe how the design of software and firmware. It also gives the challenges that are perceived in design and briefly describes some reasons for the challenges and issues. It then proposes a design for the system that uses machine learning system to improvise the charging and generate billing accurately. The proposed system will give a generic software stack and how machine learning system will interact with this stack. This is expected to help companies build an efficient software for both charging and billing.

Battery Management System (BMS) is one of core parts of Electric Vehicles. The charging station/point and electric vehicles must both accurately track the charging and the billing. The billing will also help the upstream electricity generators estimate the power used by a single charging as well as total power used by a station or a group of stations in a time period. Machine Learning can automate BMS tracking and billing and also provide alerts if supplemented by communication systems. It can also help predict power needed in a given period and also number of charging points required in a given area. The paper proposes a BMS that uses machine learning. It starts with Battery Management System (BMS) conceptual diagram and its explanation. It then gives the parameters to be measured. This is followed by proposed system design and it will work along with the ML algorithms that can be used. This is expected to aid the design of practical BMS system using machine learning.

Transport sector accounts for about 20% of global energy use with around 25–30% emissions resulting from vehicles alone. Electric vehicles (EVs) are considered to be non-polluting and environment friendly substitutes to conventional fuel vehicles because they have a zero tail pipe emissions and electric traction is more efficient than regular engines. A primary survey was conducted across 10 cities (7 tier-1 cities and 3 tier-2 cities) in India and around 6000 sample surveys were administered in order to understand consumer perceptions for EVs. The purpose of the study was to understand current vehicle ownership and driving patterns of consumers, their awareness on EVs, purchase criteria and expectations for EVs, their views on public charging infrastructure and incentives offered by government. It would enable us to understand the drivers for improving acceptance of EVs and estimate their market potential. The survey analysis indicated that over 90% of the consumers travelled within 60 km per day and travel time was less than 2 hours. Also, consumers prioritized basic EV infrastructure as the most important criteria among the others impacting their purchase decision, followed by cost of EV and its performance. More than 50% of consumers favored quick charging option over normal charging option and were willing to pay double price for charging at quick charging stations. Lack of charging infrastructure, high upfront cost, low driving range etc. were found to be main barriers for large scale adoption of electric vehicles.

The increased penetration of wind and solar into existing grid poses more challenges, which brings the need for energy storage schemes and grid management assets to ensure power system stability. For which Pumped storage plants can be used as both energy storage and grid management element instead of energy generation source alone. Before this pumped storage power generation was not of in much interest to many states although its contribution towards grid frequency stabilization and load control was well proven. A recent trend of power consumption pattern in Karnataka predicts the need for ‘Pumped Storage Technology’. With availability of about 5GW of wind and solar power, Karnataka almost meets its 60% needs. So, taking into consideration the growth of renewable energy in the state, Government of Karnataka intends to set up pumped storage plants for grid management and energy storage. The idea of pump storage is to use the excess energy and balance the grid. A pre-feasibility study carried out on the construction of 2000 MW pumped storage plant in Sharavathi valley project, Shivamogga district has been detailed in this paper. This will be a first-of-its-kind project in Karnataka and would perhaps be one of the biggest Pumped storage Schemes in the range of 2000 MW in India. The study shows that the proposed project is techno economically viable and is planned as an additional structure utilizing the existing Sharavathi hydro project consisting of Liganamakhi, Talakalale and Gerusoppa Dam.

Urban air quality issues, coupled with a rising awareness of the problems associated with the world’s appetite for oil, have created interest in Electric Vehicles (EV). Tata Power has an installed gross generation capacity of 10,857 MW and a presence in all the segments of the value chain in the power sector viz. Fuel Security and Logistics, Generation (thermal, hydro, solar and wind), Transmission, Distribution and Trading. Tata Power is navigating the digital transformation of utilities to integrated solutions by looking at new business growth in EV charging. Tata Power, being a responsible utility, has been in the forefront in setting up Infrastructure in India for Electric Vehicles. This paper explains how the company has been covering areas where EV users wish to have charging stations and thereby making India truly ready to usher in the EV wave.

The rapid growth of industrialization and globalization leads to the exploitation of non-renewable fossil fuels and these fuels cause carbon emission, global warming, climate changes, and atmospheric pollution. In the current scenario, the demand for electric energy of growing population is a major concern. This led to the development of new power generation systems at the distribution level by using various non conventional and renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind power, fuel cells and bio-gas. It gives an opportunity to utilize renewable energy sources for green and clean environment. Apart from this, a hybrid generation scheme extends the attainable flexibility and scalability for the outstanding capability of energy management. Owing to clean, safe, eco-friendly conditions, the photovoltaic cell and fuel cell are imperatively used as main power sources. This work focuses on the unique hybrid power generation, employing a novel single-switch non-isolated DC–DC converter integrated to the grid using nine-level inverter. The proposed circuit is designed by integrating a boost with quadratic boost converters which provides lower product cost and improves circuit efficiency. A nine-level inverter employing only one input source with less number of switching devices is proposed smart grid applications. The nine level output is achieved by the series and parallel combinations of one voltage source and two capacitors. In order to achieve more reliability and enhance the performance of the system, it is necessary to operate and control the smart grid in an appropriate way. The main objective of the control technique is to provide equal load sharing among the DERs in per unit and also to maintain the terminal voltage constant. Simulation studies of the proposed integrated MLI comprising of high gain DC–DC converters along with nine-level output is carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK. A suitable controller will be designed to control the output power. A prototype of the proposed power electronic circuit will be developed to validate the simulation results.

Decentralization of the main grid into microgrid levels largely depends upon the energy storage penetration level. The limits of the energy storage duration have been pushed with the increase in the penetration of renewables, from intermittent to hours based upon the application requirement. Energy storage technologies are majorly categorized into mechanical, chemical, thermal, electromagnetic and its combination depending upon the application requirement. Energy storage helps in decoupling the energy production and demand, thereby reducing the effort of constant monitoring of the load demand. Storage offers economic benefits of reduction in generation station energy to meet the average demand rather than the peak demands. This also helps in the appropriate sizing of the transmission lines and balance of plant for the average power demands. The storage technologies are compiled and evaluated based upon project/market requirement parameters such as energy/power density, specific energy/power, efficiency, cycle life, capital energy/power costs, technical maturity and its environmental impact, keeping in view their capacity and its microgrid application. Although every storage technology has its own advantages and disadvantages, with focus on the incremental development of existing technology, certain storage technology has the potential to meet the requirement with increased reliability and longevity of the decentralized system.

India is keen to attempt to work towards a low carbon emission pathway. As per goal set up for Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) by India, India has to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33–35% by 2030 from 2005 level and to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tones of CO₂ equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. Harnessing Renewable energy sources is one of the attempt to work towards a low carbon pathway. To accelerate development and deployment of renewable energy in the country, the Government is taking a number of initiatives like up-scaling of targets for renewable energy capacity addition from 30 GW by 2016–17 to 175 GW (out of total 479 GW Installed Capacity(IC)) by 2021–22 and further up to 275 GW (44%, out of total 619 GW IC) by 2026–27 ( National Electricity Plan—vol. I: Generation (Notified vide Extra ordinary Gazette No. 1871,Sl. No. 121,under part-III, Section IV dated 28.03.2018)). Due to variable, intermittent and non-dispatchable generation from RE sources, the safe and reliable grid operation is the next step towards the readiness for integration of such huge capacity of RE into the grid. Presently the balancing of grid for variability and intermittency of RE generation is done by ancillary services, already in place and by increasing/decreasing of generation from conventional sources. In the year 2021–22, when the capacity of RE is expected to be 175 GW (37% of the total IC), other measures are also required to be identified for reliable, safe and economic operation of grid. These measures include flexible operation of existing coal-fired power plants, operation of some pre-identified units of coal, gas and hydro during morning peak and off peak hours and installation of Pump storage or battery storage system of appropriate capacity at suitable location. Next, at the end of the year 2026–27, when the installed capacity of RE generation in the grid is expected to further go up to 275 GW (44% of the IC), some additional measures are to be identified. The flexible load is one of them [Electrification and future of Electricity Market. IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, July/Aug 2018]. All the measures well planned and well placed into the system by that time, would certainly help safe, reliable and economic operation of the grid.

The main objective of the paper is to delve into understanding the potential of another advanced battery technology—3D-Zinc Anode sponge-based battery technology—Zinc battery technology has not been given proper importance by many, major concentration was towards development of Lithium Ion battery technologies. 3D Zinc Anode Sponge battery technology has made significant developments. Zinc batteries were thought of as a primary (non-rechargeable) battery technology, developments over the decade has made it possible to make it secondary (rechargeable). 3DZinc Anode-based battery technology has properties which make it cheaper then Lead Acid batteries while it is equivalent to most existing Lithium Ion battery technologies. Thus, it provides a very attractive solution for all mobile and stationary sustainable energy storage use cases. The paper will look primarily at 3D Zinc Anode sponge battery Technology developments and advantages when compared with lead acid and lithium-ion batteries.

Beyond their intention, operations maturity in utilities is a continuous journey linked with many external factors like industry trends (shaping the journey), presence of technology (enabling the journey), and affordability and viability of the solutions by utilities and ecosystem players (implementing the journey). Currently utilities industry, at least in India, is going through rapid changes by implementing/adopting smart meters for improving their non-technical losses, billing efficiencies, customer service, forecasting and making initial steps for enabling a true smarter grid. With solar/distributed generation and EVs commercial scale implementations around the corner, utilities operational readiness to adopt these and continuously evolve with market needs a different approach/system. In this paper we will provide a point-of-view about the need for Command and Control Center within utilities and how Command Control and Communications (CCC) platform enable the setup with a single unified real-time view of utility operations (esp. last mile distribution) and assets by visualizing, analyzing and optimizing utility data (system of records from utility systems, utility assets, smart meters, IoT devices, SCADA, third-Party sources), allowing utility professionals (IT and OT) to deploy personal, timely, with relevant insights, and providing closed loop mechanism to close the events/incidents that are impacting the utility service and business.

In today’s energy market, consumers are becoming producers, and technology is placing more control in the hands of the many. On their own, familiar technologies—behind-the-meter energy storage, solar arrays, smart thermostats and electric vehicles (EV)—provide valuable but small-scale energy and sustainability benefits. When aggregated to become virtual power plants (VPPs), however, they become game-changers in grid management. In energy today, the watchword is “distributed.” Today’s massive, centralized electric power systems are being trans-formed as distributed energy resources (DER) plug into the mainstream market. As we integrate renewables, VPPs emerge as a responsive energy model that uses smart software and the so-called Internet of Things to aggregate thousands of smaller, separate power-producing sources scattered across the grid. These VPP networks, formed and managed by a growing number of companies across the globe, help utilities to match grid supply and demand by providing backup power during outages and peak-shaving. EVs hit the 2-million mark by the end of 2016 and expected to be around 11 million by 2025, some estimate. The takeaway is that when 2 million EVs (and growing) connect to a charge station, VPPs can substantially alter demands on the grid by slowing or ceasing EV charging (with permission from the vehicle owner). Likewise, with bidirectional flow capabilities, EVs will enable VPPs to deploy smart discharging, moving stored energy from the EV battery to reduce load on the grid within seconds. Robust batteries and smart technologies that support EV aggregation are reaching their prime. However, as with most nascent technology applications, there are challenges that the industry needs to overcome to maximize EV’s grid value.

The type of light sources have evolved over a period of time and there has been an improvement in the luminous efficacy of the light sources as they evolved. However the more important aspect would be how efficiently the lighting system is controlled during its lifetime to achieve energy efficiency during operations giving maximum benefit to the customer. The smartness in a lighting system relates more to the control part of the lighting system. These control technologies are also evolving rapidly. The system architecture consists of a Main server, local controller and the street lighting fixtures. There are different modes of communication like GSM, RF or the power cabling network itself for data/signal transfer between different components of the street lighting system. It is possible to provide different types of control like individual control, group control or a combination of both. The control would involve either ON/OFF control or dimming. The smart street lighting pole has multipurpose uses like for mounting of various sensors, video camera, wi-fi system, information display etc. The smart street lighting provides a solution which is energy efficient, having high up time wherein fault location is instantaneous and remedial actions need bare minimum time, provides a quick and easy user interface for system data, Visual graphical environment to track failures, check system health etc.

Two distinct issues in India are reduction of the power consumption and security of humans. Lots of initiatives are taken from Indian government to ensure the safety, security for Indian citizen, especially for women and children. This paper aims at efficient energy saving method for solar based autonomous street lights and also to provide the security for human during emergency situations. The street lights are automated with brightness control based on the illumination intensity, tracking of vehicle or human movement. This paper includes the implementation of theft indicator for solar panel and battery of the street lights. The human security is ensured by continuous monitoring of security camera which is kept at street light pole. It supports to call emergency services such as ambulance, fire and police during the emergency situations. The fast alertness can be achieved due to sharing the location using Global Positioning System (GPS). To realize the concept, the hardware is implemented and the results are verified. Thus, the street light energy is saved about 35% in comparison with existing system. Also, the overall security for the streetlights as well as the humans can be achieved intelligently.

Power Industry is going through a paradigm shift of replacing its traditional electric meters with a real time and two-way communicating smart meters. Smart Meter roll-out is the first milestone in traversing the journey of Smart Grid. This transition shall lead to major behavioral change of consumers and utility professionals because smart meters will be more than a mere electricity monitoring device. Smart meters will empower consumers by monitoring their consumption pattern, carrying out on-demand read and enable them to use power resources efficiently. To carry out smooth transition, utilities are expected to prepare themselves and streamline their routine practices by strengthening processes to manage highly diversified nature of smart metering eco system.

Globally, the experiences have proven that interconnection of smaller power systems to form a large power pool or regional grid is beneficial to all participants in terms of efficiency, economy, reliability and resilience. In this paper, an attempt was made to list the numerous benefits that exist for taking in interconnecting regions, in general, and in particular the GCC, SAARC/BIMSTEC and the ASEAN region. Further, an attempt has been made to identify all activities and tasks to be completed to ascertain the feasibility of interconnecting the regions. It does appear from the data and facts analysed that such an interconnection between these three regions will be very beneficial to all the Nations in the Pan Asia Grid. The narration has been kept simple for easy understanding by all.