Smart grid

A smart grid is an electrical grid that uses information and communications technology to gather and act on information, such as information about the behaviors of suppliers and consumers, in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, economics, and sustainability of the production and distribution of electricity.

Features of the smart grid

Reliability
The smart grid will make use of technologies that improve fault detection and allow selfhealing of the network without the intervention of technicians. This will ensure more reliable supply of electricity, and reduced vulnerability to natural disasters or attack.

Flexibility in network topology

Next-generation transmission and distribution infrastructure will be better able to handle possible bidirectional energy flows, allowing for distributed generation such as from photovoltaic panels on building roofs, but also the use of fuel cells, charging to/from the batteries of electric cars, wind turbines, pumped hydroelectric power, and other sources.

Efficiency
Numerous contributions to overall improvement of the efficiency of energy infrastructure is anticipated from the deployment of smart grid technology, in particular including demandside management, for example turning off air conditioners during short-term spikes in electricity price. The overall effect is less redundancy in transmission and distribution lines, and greater utilisation of generators, leading to lower power prices.

Load adjustment
The total load connected to the power grid can vary significantly over time. Although the total load is the sum of many individual choices of the clients, the overall load is not a stable, slow varying, average power consumption. Imagine the increment of the load if a popular television program starts and millions of televisions will draw current instantly. Traditionally, to respond to a rapid increase in power consumption, faster than the start-up time of a large generator, some spare generators are put on a dissipative standby mode. A smart grid may warn all individual television sets, or another larger customer, to reduce the load temporarily (to allow time to start up a larger generator) or continuously (in the case of limited resources). Using mathematical prediction algorithms it is possible to predict how many standby generators need to be used, to reach a certain failure rate. In the traditional grid, the failure rate can only be reduced at the cost of more standby generators. In a smart grid, the load reduction by even a small portion of the clients may eliminate the problem.

Electrical Grid
A power grid is an interconnected network of transmission lines for supplying electricity from power suppliers to consumers. Any disruptions in the network causes power outages. India has five regional grids that carry electricity from power plants to respective states in the country. For an electricity grid to function smoothly, it is essential that load and generation must be balanced at all times to prevent a failure. The flow of electricity through the lines should ideally not exceed the rated capacity, otherwise the lines could trip due to an overload.

On one hand it has Generating station and on the other hand it has load centres.

generating stations

They put together, supply the electricity demand through the transmission lines; Draw the power from the lines and send it to consumers.

load centres or distribution companies

Components of a grid
A grid consists of three main components: produce electricity from fossil fuels (coal, gas) or non-combustible fuels (hydro, nuclear, wind, solar);

power stations

transmission lines Transformers

carry electricity from power plants to demand centers

reduce the voltage so that distribution lines carry power for final delivery.

Electricity Scenario: India

Indias present installed electricity capacity is 205 gigawatts (1GW is 1,000MW). Per capita electricity consumption in China is about 3.5 times that of India. [ If a countrys electricity, cement or steel consumption is higher than India, it means theyre more advanced and Developed than we are]. Hydro and coal account for nearly 77 per cent of electricity generation in India.

Factors leading to a grid failure

The power deficit was worsened by a weak monsoon that lowered hydroelectric generation and kept temperatures high, feeding the appetite for electricity. Farmers using energy-intensive water pumps for irrigation to save their recently sown crops may also have pushed up the demand. If the monsoon does not pick up, the grids are expected to come under more stress. Hydropower accounts for about 20 per cent of installed power capacity but reservoirs have only 24 per cent of the water they can hold -- just about half of what they carried at this time last year. Many state governments give farmers free or near-free electricity, triggering a vicious cycle of unviable power boards whose supply is so erratic that farmers are forced to pay a steep price to run diesel pumps and generators. Many states have not adjusted tariff for 10 years. The industry has advocated abolishing a 1973 Act that nationalised coal mining. Changes to the law are expected to allow professional miners to scout for and mine coal.

India's power shortage

India is slow to set up new power capacity principally because it is short of fossil fuels. Coal is mined hesitantly and natural gas, the other feedstock for power plants, is just beginning to flow in from new offshore finds. The government rations both. The immediate response to a power sector in distress - thermal plants are idling a quarter of their capacity - is to give it a bigger slice of the pie. The sustainable response will need the pie to grow overall. India's basic energy shortage is compounded by the policy of selling electricity to consumers at politically correct prices. The government-owned distribution monopolies in the states have all but lost their ability to buy power because their political bosses force them to sell it cheap, sometimes free, to voters. This opportunism is hurting the economy: the government estimates unaccounted for sale of power in India, at a third of the total, costs the country 1% of its gross domestic product.