Hyderabad to become a Smart Grid City

In an initiative that is untried in the country as yet, the state government will soon start a pilot project using smart grids produced by a company supported by the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad in a city’s neighbourhood.
Ecolibrium Energy, an Ahmedabad-based company, “is in the process of implementing the first smart grid pilot in India,” a release from the Center for Innovation Incubation and Entreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A said.

Smart grids are power grids with the ability to adapt to various electricity sources, be it conventional or clean energy. While electricity may flow from either a wind mill or solar cell, changes in the weather may abruptly stop the electricity flow (clouds may cover the sun or winds may stop). In such cases, smart grids change their sources to conventional sources; drawing power from a conventional energy power plant instead, for example.

Besides this, smart grids can also send signals to both power plants and end-users like homes or office buildings, constantly telling them how much energy they are consuming. The power plant can then either cut down the amount of power it generates or the end user can cut down its consumption accordingly.

The CIIE is currently undertaking its RE-Search (Renewable Energy Search) programme with support from the state government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and Ecolibrium Energies is one of its incubatees.

Chintan Soni, the company’s MD and CEO, said the project would involve 130 kilo watts and the agreement would be for two years. The project is likely to scale up to include 3-4 neighbourhoods in a month or two, he added.

Adopted from : The Times of India