Govt. of India to launch a National Smart Grid Mission

The Indian government will soon launch a national smart grid mission and monitor the implementation of policies and programmes envisioned in the smart grid road map for the power sector, said Mr.  B N Sharma, joint secretary, Ministry of Power at the Trafotech 2014, an international conference at the ongoing ELECRAMA 2014 in Bangalore. 

“This will help in finding solutions for some of the daunting challenges the Indian power sector is faced with, such as enabling better access to electricity, providing lifeline supply to all households, reducing T&D losses, etc. This will also guide planning and investments for future power projects and T&D activities”, Mr. Sharma said. He added that the government had recently unveiled the Smart Grid Vision and Road Map for the future for both modernizing the aging grids as well as for transition towards low carbon power economy by integrating renewable generation with the grid.

In his Presidential address at the Trafotech 2014, G Kumar Naik, MD, KPTCL said, “The importance of transformers can be understood from the fact that the Government of Karnataka has given topmost priority to transformers by proposing to set up transformer repair centres in every taluka in the state and transformer banks in every district head quarter of the state.”

At the conference, Raj Eswaran, President, Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturing Association (IEEMA) said in his address that the industry body had identified five areas for strategic and policy interventions by both the government and industry. Mr. Aditya Dhoot, Vice-Chairman ELECRAMA 2014, said that India’s Rs 12,000 crore transformer industry is facing a few challenges as it is currently operating at about 60% capacity due to a slump in demand projected by the Government companies.

The Mission plan 2012-2022 for the electrical equipment industry was launched in July 2013 and its vision is to make India the country of choice for production of electrical equipment and reach an output of USD 100 billion by balancing exports and imports.

IEEMA also released “Power Transformers – Standardization Manual” with the objective of making the industry follow uniform standards on all aspects of manufacturing, maintenance and repair of power transformers in the country. A Lifetime Contribution Award was conferred to Mr. M L Mittal the former technical director at BHEL for his contribution in the field of Transformers and smart grid.