The government has decided to make Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation Sam Pitroda the head of the “India Smart Grid Task Force.”
The task force was set up to evolve a road map for development and deployment of smart and intelligent grid technologies with the aim of making India a world leader in this sphere.
The task force, an Inter-Ministerial Group, will serve as a focal point for activities related to the smart grid technology. Nominees from the Ministries of Home, Defence, Communications & Information Technology, Non-Renewable Energy, Environment and Forests and Finance and from the Planning Commission, the Department of Science and Technology, CERC, CEA, CPRI, BEE, NTPC, PGCIL, BIS, PFC and the REC will be its members.
Union Minister for Power Sushilkumar Shinde recently launched the “India Smart Grid Forum,” first initiative of its kind in the power sector.
The buzzwords
Officials in the Power Ministry said “smart and intelligent” are becoming the buzzwords for the power sector due to deployment and adoption of latest technologies. It is hoped that the smart grid will bring together communications, IT and power technologies and establish a comprehensive power infrastructure.
The smart grid envisages giving a choice to a customer to decide the timing and amount of power consumption based upon the price of the power at a particular moment of time. Also, it will motivate him to participate in the operations of the grid, cause energy efficiency, accommodate all generation and storage options and provide various properties for the grid such as self-healing and adaptive islanding enabling electricity markets to flourish.
Mr. Pitroda is of the view that as in IT and telecom, India will lead in smart grid technology. He has urged the stakeholders to join hands in overcoming the challenge of lighting a billion lamps.
Power utilities around the world are adopting smart grid technology to make the power infrastructure robust, self-healing, adaptive, interactive and cost-effective. For its systemic growth in the country, India Smart Grid Forum and India Smart Grid Task Force have been set up.
India Smart Grid Forum is a non-profit voluntary consortium of public and private stakeholders.
