Rexjournal Renewable Research Journal

System Integration:
Smart Grid with Renewable Energy

Authors

Mrs. N. V. Vader
Research student (Reg. 141012208)
JJT Univercity, Rajstan
Head of Elect. Power System Depart
V.P.M.s Polytechnic,
Thane India

Mr. Mandar V. Bhadang

Lecturer, Electrical Power system Depart.
V.P.M.s Polytechnic,
Thane, India

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System Integration: Smart Grid with Renewable Energy

Abstract:-

As electricity demands are increasing day by day causing unbalance in the present grid
system which results in various causes like load shedding, unbalance voltage etc which
ultimately affects the consumers. Now to avoid all such situations the only option is to meet the
demand by increasing generation but, we are also lagging with the conventional sources so
generating more power is also not convenient by conventional ways. Thus, use of Renewable is
quite important.
The solar power reaching the earths surface is about 86,000 TW. Covering 0.22% of our
planet with solar collectors with an efficiency of 8% would be enough to satisfy the current
global power consumption solar have tremendous potential for fulfilling the worlds energy
needs
Smart grids promise to facilitate the performance of the grid system. The power industry
has adopted smart grids that use information and communication technologies, which may
make electric power systems more reliable and efficient.
Renewable technology enhances the available energy resources. These technologies also
enable integration of higher levels of renewable energy and conventional energy sources. The
renewable sources are not dispatch-ablethe power output cannot be controlled. Future
energy sustainability depends heavily on how the renewable energy problem is addressed in the
next few decades.
Solar energy can be made more economical by reducing investment and operating costs and
by increasing solar plant performance. Integration of solar system with the smart grid have to
come up with the challenges put forward by solar systems like technology barrier, uncertainty,
social impact, economical aspects, free acceptance etc.
Several countries have adopted special programs to subsidize and promote solar energy.
Among the most successful ones are the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) programs and the Production Tax
Credit (PTC) programs.
In this paper, we consider path from conventional grid towards smart grid, challenges against
integration of renewable energy, i.e. solar system. And impact of solar on grid stability,
reliability of supply. Failure of grid which leads to total blackout which may lead to renewable
energy as one of the solution to reduce impact of blackout- case study of total blackout in North
India on 29th& 30th July 2012 .
The section of the paper will concentrate on Ways of assimilation of Solar system in Smart
grid, challenges & benefits of integrated grid systems.

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Introduction:-

`In recent years availability of power in India has bothincreased and improved but
demand has consistently outstrippedsupply and substantial energy and peak shortages prevailed
in recent years. The selection of an energy resourcefor electricity generation is growing concern
about other aspects such as social, environmental and technological benefitsand consequences of
the energy source selection. Adoption of System integration by utilitieswill help to find ways to
maintain the functionality of their current systems while also riding the wave of innovative
technology that keeps them ahead of the competition.For integration of smart grid and renewable
energy systems into a integrated system needs broad range of skills .These skills are likely to
include advance technology, interface procedures, and general problem solving skills. They are
likely to include new and challenging problems with an input from a broad range of engineers
where the system integration engineer "pulls it all together."

Electrical Grid system:-

An electrical grid is an
interconnected network for
delivering electricity from suppliers
to consumers. The electrical grid
has evolved from an insular system
that serviced a particular
geographic area to a wider,
expansive network that
incorporated multiple areas. India is
geographically divided in five
regions namely, Northern, Eastern,
Western North Eastern and
Southern. All the states and union
territories in India fall in either of
these regions. Except the Southern region all other regions are operating in syncrons mode. The
Southern Region will be synchronized in 2014. All regional grids are interconnected through tie
lines. so that the power across these regions can flow seamlessly as per the relative load
generation balance.

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To meet the increased transmission capacity, to reduce the transmission losses (Technical
& commercial) and to adopt Energy conservation techniques Smart grid phenomenon is been
adopted by utilities in transmission levels. To enhance the generation capacity as well as to
improve the performance of the distribution system local generation phenomenon has been
included for which renewable energy is the key source. The ability to increase usage of
intermittent energy sources by balancing them across vast geological regions provided an
electrical market which will remove the congestion.

Path from vertical integration to Vertical cum horizontal integration:-

Almost since their origin, electric
utilities have been vertically integrated,
with generation, transmission, and
distribution combined in a single
firm.Centralized organizationuse to
ensuremaintenance of reliability, the
supply of energy equals demand, Low-
cost production simultaneously
optimization of generator dispatch and
allocation of transmission capacity. So
money flow was unidirectional from
consumer to utility and information flow was only between transmission and generation stations.
Draw backs economical aspect and lack of coordination between different components of utility
resulted into deregulation of power system.
The Energy Policy Act (EP Act) of 1992 advocated deregulation of electric utilities by
creating wholesale electric markets. Deregulation system adopted vertical as well as horizontal
integration.There is no government restriction on entry or exit from the electricity industry at
various stages. No. of private power suppliers are introduced at as generation companies,
transmission companies and also work as power distributors.
Power generation can be done at mega level or at micro level. Micro generation is the
small-scale generation of electric power by individuals, small businesses and communities to
meet their own needs, as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected
power.Many small generators are allowed to sell electricity back to the grid for the same price
they would pay to buy it. The smart grid signifies digital upgrade of transmission grids and
distribution systems to optimize current operations, reduce cost and intensifications reliability.

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What is Smart Grid???

The Smart Grid is a compilation of concepts,
technologies, and operating practices intended to bring the
electric grid into the 21st century.A smart grid is an electric
grid system where all accomplices in the grid system (i.e.
electricity generators, transmission and distribution operators,
electricity consumers) communicate and work with each other
to raise the efficiency and reliability of the grid.
The smart grid delivers electricity to consumers using
two-way digital technology to enable the more efficient
management of consumers end uses of electricity as well as
the more efficient use of the grid to identify and correct supply demand-imbalances
instantaneously and detect faults in a self-healing process that improves service quality,
enhances reliability, and reduces costs
The smart grid is more than simply installing smart meters by bringing an information
technology to the electric grid, we will develop numerous applications that use the devices,
networking and communications technology, and control and data management systems.

Smart grid in Indian power sector:-

Following factors emphasize the adoption of the smart grid in India:

Peak shortfalls: India is world's 6th largest energy consumer, accounting for 3.4% of
global energy consumption. Demand for energy has grown at an average of 3.6% per annum
there is short fall of peak demand.
Loss reduction: Indias aggregate transmission (technical and commercial) losses are on
av. 20-27%. Adoption of smart grid has reduced losses.
Performance Efficiency: The smart grid can improve load factors and reduce system
losses. This will reduce the dips in load curves and improves the performance efficiency of entire
power system.
Human Error: Error in meter reading, deliberate errors, power theft, faulty meters, and
poor maintenance of meter intentional damage has resulted with significant losses. However,
automated meter reading would lower recording and other errors thereby reduced commercial
losses.

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Peak load management: Indias supply shortfalls are during peak hours and are
persisting for many years. Implementation of demand side management had allowed more
intelligent load control. Restructuring of tariff with incentives has been communicated to
consumers in a dynamic manner. which would help moderate the supply-demand gap.
Future energy: India has supported the application of renewable energy wind energy
and solar energy. Nearly 2-3% power generation is considered by renewable energy. MOP has
under taken National Solar Mission and set a goal to add 20,000 MW of power by 2020. This
will help us to overcome peak hour short fall and also reducing carbon emission.
Technological leap: Perhaps the most intriguing driver for India is the potential to
leapfrog into a new future for electricity, as it did with telecommunications. Also, the smart
in a smart grid is ICT an area of unique capability in India.

Generation Mix:-

Renewable Power generation Indias energy-mix comprises both non renewable

Potential capacity
(coal, lignite, petroleum and natural gas) and Renewable
Wind Power 49,132 Mw (55%)
Potential energy sources (Wind, Solar, small Hydro- plants,
Biomass, cogeneration, bagasse etc.). Depletion of non-
Solar power 1044.16 Mw
potential renewable sources named renewable Sources as Future
Energy Sources.There are a high potential for generation
Biomass 17,538 Mw (20%)
Power of renewable energy from various sources wind, solar,
Potential biomass, small hydro, and cogeneration bagasse. The
Small Hydro 15,385 Mw (17%) total potential of renewable power generation in the
Power country as on 31st march, 2011 is estimated at 89760
Cogeneration 5000 Mw (6%) MW.
in Sugar Mills
Renewable technology enhances the available
energy resources. These technologies also enable integration of higher levels of renewable
energy and conventional energy sources. The renewable sources are not dispatch-ablethe
power output cannot be controlled. Future energy sustainability depends heavily on how the
renewable energy problem is addressed in the next few decades.

Renewable (Solar & Wind) energy can be made more economical by reducing investment
and operating costs and by increasing solar plant performance. Integration of solar system with
the smart grid have to come up with the challenges put forward by solar systems like technology
barrier, uncertainty, social impact, economical aspects, free acceptance etc.

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Renewable energy systems:-

Renewable-energy resources can be used for power generation as standalone or isolated

system. But their benefits are significantly enhanced when they are integrated into bigger electric
power grids. Each resource is different from the grids perspective and some are easier to
integrate than others. With greater use of smart grid technologies, higher degrees and rates of
penetration can be accommodated.

Role of Renewable energy:-

In INDIA the renewable energy sector
is developing with a slower pace but to
overcome this first step taken is formation of
ministry of non-conventional energy
resources. However, India lags behind the
other nations in use of renewable energies.
Indias total grid connected renewable energy
capacity (excluding large hydro) is around
26.96 GW out of which 68.9% comes from
wind source while 4.59% comes from solar
PV cells.

Sr.No. State Solar Energy Wind Energy

01 Tamil Nadu 2MW 4132.72 MW

02 Maharashtra 11.2MW 1837.85 MW

03 Karnataka 10MW 1184.45 MW

04 Rajasthan 105MW 670.97 MW
05 Gujarat 654.81MW 1432.71 MW
06 Andhra Pradesh 10MW 122.45 MW
07 Madhya Pradesh 2MW 187.69 MW
08 Kerala 00MW 23.00 MW
09 West Bengal 2MW 1.10 MW
10 other states 35MW 3.20 MW

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Benefits of integration:-

Leading characteristics of renewable resources that impact their integration into power
grids are their size (generation capacity as compared to other sources of power generation on a
system), their location (both geographically and with respect to network topology), and their
variability (minute-by-minute, daily, seasonally, and intermittently).Renewable integration -
reducing our nations dependence on foreign coal by enabling the seamless integration of
cleaner, greener energy technologies into our power network.

Normally Renewable resources are connected at the distribution level and as larger resources
(wind farms, solar farms) are connected at the transmission level.

1. Future energy sustainability: Renewable energies are making a significant contribution to

climate protection, diversify resources, ease dependence on fossil resources, not produce
any type of contamination, domestic energy carriers and therefore contribute to regional
value creation and help to secure employment. Hence renewables as future energy
provides sustainability.

2. Empowering grid in peak hours :Integration of more renewables and storage support the
smart grid with real time information and substituting renewable energy sources
whenever possible. Increasing proportion of Renewables in generation mix not only
improves operational efficiency but reduces peak demands

3. Energy management: Smart metering helps to adopt energy management techniques such
as Demand side managementat consumer level, demand response usage leads to
optimum utilization and results into saving of energy.

4. Independent systems: RE systems works as isolated system during grid failure and
reduces impact on customer. Industrial and commercial consumers adopt grid connected
RE systems which helps to reduce power demand. Sometimes isolated system in
residential areas conserves the energy.

5. Upgrading Electrical market: Power exchange provides an electronic platform to

facilitate trading of electricity at national level. Initiated Renewable energy trade since
2011. India ranks fourth for its market potential in renewable energy.

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Challenges in Integration of renewable with Smart grid:-

Variable generation, provided by many renewable-energy sources, is a challenge to

electric grid operations. But when used in integration with smart grid as responsive distributed
generation can be a profit to system operations if coordinated to relieve stress in the system (e.g.,
peak load, line overloads, etc.). Smart grid approaches can reduce barriers and facilitate
integration of renewable resources.

The challenges can be categorized below as technical, financial, business and societal issues.

A--Technical:-

1. Advanced Control Strategies: Solar and wind power plants exhibit changing dynamics,
nonlinearities, and uncertainties .Hence smart grid require advanced control strategies to
solve effectively. The use of more efficient control techniques would not only increase
the performance of these systems, but would increase the number of operational hours of
solar and wind plants and thus reduce the cost per kilowatt-hour (KWh) produced.
2. Wind and solar energy are both intermittent resources. Wind behavior changes daily and
seasonally, and sunlight is only available during daylight hours. Both wind and solar
energy can be viewed as aggregate resources from the point of view of a power grid, with
levels that vary within a 10 minute to 1 hour time frame, so they do not represent the
same form of intermittency as an unplanned interruption in a large base-load generator.
3. Research in technology is still in progress. Hence existing generation and delivery
infrastructure (i.e. legacy) of RE systems must be adaptive to work with new
technologies.
4. Being flexible to changing technologies require identifying the vital interface between
technology components.
5. Achieving association across service providers, end-users and technology suppliers is
difficult in particularly in growing international market place. Exchange of knowledge
and information can allow multiple parties to connect their devices and system for proper
interaction, but attaining interoperability is difficult.

B-Business and financial:-

1. Understanding and communicating the value proposition of a smart grid deployment for
each stakeholder in the electricity supply chain is scary.

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2. The financial environment risk and reward can challenge business plan for smart grid
investments as well as in Renewable energy system.
3. Regulatory understanding and sensitivity to providing an appropriate environment for
smart grid investment takes place. Regulatory decisions (or lack of decisions) can create
new challenges.
4. Developing an appropriate incentive structure that aligns economic and regulatory
policies with energy-efficiency and environmental goal needs to be tailored to each
member economy.

C-Societal:-

1. Strategies need to account for a variety of policy objectives (affordability, sustainability,

growth and cultural values).
2. Assigning value to externalities, such as environmental impacts, is difficult, but
necessary, in balanced decision- making.
3. Understanding and accounting for the beneficial aspects of smart grid investments as a
mechanism for job creation and advancing a technically skilled workforce needs
development.
4. Greater awareness about capabilities of smart grid and there benefits for improving
energy-efficiency and renewable resource integration policies.
5. Research and development activities: the speed with which new ideas and deployment
tactics are being generated.

Case Study: Major Power failure in India -2012:-

On 30th June 2012 the two stages in North India have drawn excess power from the grid
which resulted in dropping frequency level which tripped the NEW grid and cascaded the
Northern and Eastern Grid. Western grid has isolated itself from NEW grid by reducing the
demand. Among the two major circuits linking Agra-Gwalior and a line linking Zerda in Gujarat
and Kankroli in Rajasthan were out for maintenance which main links connecting western and
northen grid. Prior to fault on 29th one of this line was heavily loaded by around 1000MW power
flowing through a single circuit brought it on a verge of Collapse by 3pm.
Because of such critical condition at 2.30 pm the Northern transmission grid collapsed
and took Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh into darkness. NTPCs six plants: Singrauli (2000 MW),

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Rihand (2500 MW), Dadri (1820), Auiya (652 MW), Anta (413 MW) and Badrapur (705 MW)
stopped generating following the failure.

Vital Observations:-
Due to the above mentioned failure some vital observations were carried out which are
as mentioned below:-

Railways and Delhi Metro came to halt for few hours due to failure of signaling systems.

About 270 miners were stuck in coal mines in eastern India as elevators stopped
working.

Restoration time 15 hours (80% of service).

Delhi Airport was open because of back-up power (Micro-Grid) in 15 seconds.

Oil refineries in Panipat, Mathura & Bhatinda continued operating because of captive
power stations (independent of grid).

Villages like Meerwada in Madhya Pradesh were unaffected, because of 14 kW solar

power station.

Majority of industries, shopping malls, commercial complexes not affected due to their
backup systems which were run by diesel generators.

Major IT hubs, small commercial sectors and some agricultural loads were still in line
due to renewable energy generation like solar energy & Wind energy.

Due to this integrated system some of the major break downs were prevented by the use of
such integrated systems and the minor part of northern grid was operating without any
disturbances. If this would have been implemented on the complete grid system might be this
major black out would have been prevented. Thus integrating renewable energy into grid
requires not only new technology but new attitude and operating procedure.

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Conclusion:-

Renewable generation has the benefit of enhancing sustainability (reducing environmental

impacts), reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing dependence on local or imported
fossil fuels, and increasing energy security through diversification of energy sources.

Smart grid technology can control renewable resources to effect changes in the grids
operating conditions and can provide additional benefits as distributed generation assets or when
installed at the transmission level.

Distributed generation can support weak grids, adding grid voltage and improving power
quality. In certain circumstances, distributed generation can be used in conjunction with
capacitor banks for management of power flows or to manage active and reactive power balance.

If harvested and taken care of control system,

Renewable Resources will act as Smart Grid Assets.

Reference: -
Papers

Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Energy Working Group May 2011

Report, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 902 Battelle Boulevard Richland, WA
99352, USA.

Paper on Control for Renewable Energy and Smart Grid. By, Eduardo F. Camacho,
Tariq samad , Mario Garcia-sanz, and Ian Hiskens.

Paper on Building a Smarter Smart Grid through better renewable energy

Information. By Cameron W-Potter member IEEE.

An introduction to the Smart Grid (White paper) By Wissam Balshe, Sales

Application Engineer.

Smart Grids White Paper WH-1:14.8.2009 CSTEP (www.cstep.in) Rahul Tongia,

Ph.D.

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Central statistics office national statistical organization ministry of statistics and
programme implementation government of India (www.mospi.gov.in)

Websites

http//www.powergrid.in/national grid.html

http://www.powermin.in/loaddispacthcenter

http://www.oe.energy.gov/DocumentsandMedia/stakeholder_roundtable_sept_09_fin
al.2.00.pdf

Books

The India Solar Handbook June 2012 edition.

Renewable energy technologies by Ramesh R. Publication:- Narose publishing

house.

Renewable energy sources and their environmental impact by Abbasi S.A / Abbasi N.
Publication: - PHI/New Delhi.

Renewable energy sources and emerging technologies by D.P.Kothari / Sigal K.C

Publication:- PHI/New Delhi.

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