CEA Committee Proposes Roadmap for Indigenous SCADA Systems in India

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) committee's report on the 'Formulation of Trajectory of Indigenisation of SCADA System' has recommended a phased approach to develop and deploy indigenous SCADA and Energy Management System (EMS) technologies for India’s power grid.

According to the committee’s report, India may initiate the process of inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) for indigenous SCADA system development within one year.

The committee has recommended establishing a dedicated testing platform within two years with government funding. The facility would enable testing of indigenous SCADA modules through simulated grid operations, while also assessing their cybersecurity capabilities.

The report has further proposed pilot projects at State Load Despatch Centres (SLDCs), Regional Load Despatch Centres (RLDCs) and the National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC). These projects would allow indigenous SCADA and EMS software and hardware, including Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), workstations and servers, to be tested and validated in real time alongside existing systems. SLDC Odisha has volunteered to provide a testing environment for the initiative.

The committee has also recommended forming a dedicated team within Grid India to oversee the development of indigenous SCADA systems, project management and future upgrades. Module developers may initially be involved to support the development process.

On financing, the committee called for a suitable funding mechanism through government grants or an alternative sustainable model to ensure adequate resources for research, development and testing.

The report emphasised that dedicated funding and comprehensive testing infrastructure will be critical to achieving the proposed timelines for SCADA indigenisation and strengthening domestic capabilities in power-grid management.