Title: / LVDC in INDIA : Priorities & Needs
Status: / Input Document to CENELEC Ad-Hoc Working Group on LVDC strategy in India
Purpose: / Information
Author(s) or
Contact(s): / Dinesh Chand Sharma
SESEI, European Business Technology Centre, DLTA Complex, South Block, 1st Floor, 1, Africa Avenue, New Delhi 110029 /
Tel:
Email: /
+91 9810079461
Source: / Project SESEI (Seconded European Standardization Expert in India) of CEN, CENELEC, ETSI, EC and EFTA
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1Introduction
1.1Electricity Scenario in India
Over 300million people in India have no access to electricity. Over one third of India's rural population lacked electricity, as did 6% of the urban population. Of those who did have access to electricity in India, the supply was intermittent and unreliable.Since 1990, India has been one of the fastest growing markets for new electricity generation capacity. India's electricity generation capacity has increased from 179 TW-h in 1985 to 1053 TW-h in 2012.
Rural areas in India are electrified non-uniformly, with richer states being able to provide a majority of the villages with power while poorer states still struggling to do so. The Rural Electrification Corporation Limited was formed to specifically address the issue of providing electricity in all the villages across the country. Poverty, lack of resources, lack of political will, poor planning and electricity theft are some of the major causes which has left many villages in India without electricity, while urban areas have enjoyed growth in electricity consumption and capacity.
The central government is increasingly trying to improve the dire conditions by investing heavily in bio-gas, solar as well as wind energy. It is also initiating programs such as, Jawaharlal Nehru National solar mission, Pradhan Mantri Gram Vidyut yojna to fasten the pace of electrification and diversify the procedure. The work is also on-going for reducing wastage, providing better equipment and improving the overall infrastructure for electrical transmissions in villages. Currently, some 60% of villages in India have been electrified with a further goal of providing complete electrification by 2025.
India's Power Finance Corporation Limited projects that current and approved electricity capacity addition projects in India are expected to add about 100 GW of installed capacity between 2012 and 2017.India's installed capacity growth rates are still less than those achieved by China, and short of capacity needed to ensure universal availability of electricity throughout India by 2017.
1.2Why LVDC and why now?
The biggest challenge that India is facing is to provide electricity to approximately 300 Million people spread in the rural and remote areas of the country. As per the conventional electricity system in place today, electrical devices are powered by AC mains. But as renewable technologies such as solar photovoltaic, wind power, fuel cells etc. become more prevalent at a household level; DC Microgrids could be a cheaper alternative. Lighting is widely considered to account for around 20% of global electricity consumption, and a recent report from the IEA estimates that up to 15% of domestic energy are consumed through electrical/electronic appliances - i.e. computers and consumer electronics/ LEDs are emerging as a preferred option for high efficiency lighting, and they run on DC power. Similarly, most of other gadgets operate or being developed to operate on DC power, thus add significant and increasing global consumption of electricity by DC devices. But these are presently powered by AC mains via multiple conversion form high voltage to working voltage through chains of switching devices and transformers.
The recent past has seen growing use of DC, some visible examples being HVDC Power Transmission & DC Power Distribution in Metro Rail Networks. Low Voltage DC is a topic on which there is increasing research ongoing within industry, research and academic circles. A definitive shift towards DC is visibly underway in Data Centers, Lighting systems & Motor operated consumer appliances.DC can reduce energy usage in buildings, a segment that has emerged as the leading energy consumer consequent to accelerating urbanization. Intelligent application of Solar & other forms of Renewable Energy, AC/DC Coupled Power Distribution & Energy Storage can alter existing paradigms in energy management & create new value propositions in Distributed Generation, Micro grids & Smart grids.
Many small scale renewables natively generate low voltage DC power. Most of these generators supply power to AC mains networks and require costly and inefficient power invertors; even where the power may ultimately be delivered to a DC device. A possible solution is to install a DC network linking DC devices to DC power supplies. Such networks have not yet emerged because of the higher electrical losses associated with transmitting a fixed amount of power as low voltage DC, rather than higher voltage AC. But with the proliferation of low power electronic devices, bringing the potential for LEDs to reduce lighting loads by a up to a factor of 10 and the potential for efficient distributed power generation, localized DC networks – or DC Microgrids - may finally be practical and economical.
Besides reduction of resources and financial costs, a key advantage of DC Microgrids is that the low risk of dangerous electric shocks from low voltage DC makes plug-and-play grids a possibility. This greatly reduces the installation cost of micro-generation, and could empower village folks with limited knowledge of electricity to take responsibility for understanding and controlling their individual energy consumption. Thus bring in inclusiveness for sustained operation.
1.3Activities on LVDC in India
1.3.1LVDC Forum by IEEE;
In view of the challenges and opportunities in India for provision of electricity to millions of people, IEEE formed the Indian Low-Voltage DC (LVDC) Forum under the auspices of the IEEE-SA Industry Connections (IC) program.
The activities of this IEEE sponsored LVDC Forum aims to drive the reduction of electricity demand by a combination of DC-based domestic appliances, minimizing AC-DC conversions, and judicious application of LVDC power distribution. Consequent reduction of electricity consumption and energy efficiencies is important globally, and is particularly critical in emerging economies and more so in India. India has a more fundamental challenge, which is to provide access to electricity for 100s of millions of its people who currently live without it & thereby transform lives.
LVDC Forum intent to facilitate technology application and demonstration projects to gain techno-economic information needed to evolve LVDC standards and catalyze the technology’s commercialization. This IEEE sponsored LVDC forum plan to facilitate and guide; the design & building of DC Micro grids, DC Power Distribution Networks in various types of buildings including data centers, and application of DC in homes as pilot projects in each of these three areas.
As part of this initiative, this IEEE sponsored LVDC Forum has partnered with the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF)—a public private partnership of the Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India for accelerated development of smart grid technologies in the Indian power sector. LVDC Forum [ IEEE] is also working very closely with CPRI (Central Power Research Institute) and Indian electrical body IEEMA through a MoU. More than 30 global technology manufacturers and suppliers, research organizations, academic institutions, industry consortia and government agencies have joined the LVDC Forum. IEEE is using every possible opportunity to ensure that they are the thought leased and better placed to form standards development on this subject of LVDC in India.
This LVDC Forum also plans to look at existing standards and provide recommendations for changes to existing standards or creation of new standards required to support Low Voltage DC deployment. Along with that, LVDC forum intends to take a look at safety and regulatory aspects for needed for implementing the use of DC across various applications.
The LVDC forum has identified 4 working groups in the areas of:
- DC in the home
- DC in commercial buildings
- DC in Microgrids
- DC indoor power distribution
It is obvious that the larger intent of the IEEE sponsored LVDC forum is to introduce and influence standards related to all these applications of LVDC.
1.3.2Working Group by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS);
Following up on activities by IEEE LVDC Forum in India, possible directive from Prime Minister Office and a strong political pressure to come up with fast solutions including standards to support the project electrification of India, BIS has established a working group to work on this subject of LVDC in India. Electrical Installations Sectional Committee, ET 20 under Electrotechnical Department of the Bureau of Indian Standards has established “LVDC Panel” under their Sectional Committee ET 20 to focus on standardization activity in the field of LVDC." Professor Jhunjunwala from IIT Chennai has been nominated to be convener of this working group in BIS. Professor Jhunjunwala is also Chairing IEEE Sponsored Working Group on DC in the homeDC indoor power distribution. Also quite recently his Q&A has been published in the media on this subject as available at Read More
2LVDC Priorities & Needs in India
Priority 1: BIS participation at IEC
IEC/CENELEC shall encourage BIS to work with IEC SMB SG4 and SMB ahG 54 dealing on the subject of LV Direct Current Applications, Distribution, Safety and Market.
Priority 2: Energy Access to the rural and remote areas of the country
Identify Standardized Solution to provide electricity to approximately 300 Million people spread in the rural and remote areas of the country such as Microgrid with centralized (Grid Connected) solar generation and/or decentralized (Off-Grid) storage which is probably is the simplest, reliable, cost effective, scalable and highly efficient solution to provide access to electricity to people living in villages without access to electricity. Hence it is important to;
- To recommend appropriate standards and solutions for the DC in Microgrid Off-Grid application with RE resources Wind / Solar keeping in mind their intermittent nature.
- Develop a pilot system with complete design, components, and costs etc. and develop appropriate solutions for showcasing the DC in off-grid micro-grid implementations.
- To develop set of guidelines and technology recommendations and suggestions of standards and recommended operational practices/grid code for DC in Microgrid.
- To share best practices, case studies and examples of implementation of LVDC in off-grid and micro-grid applications worldwide so that the BIS may gain specific insights into LVDC while drafting the Indian standards.
- To extend support in drafting the Indian LVDC standards,
Priority 3: Energy Efficiency in High Energy Consumption environemtns
The transmission and distribution losses are still very high in the Indian power system and distribution network (aggregate technical & commercial, or AT&C) loss reduction continues to be the top priority of both utilities and government.
- Study and develop solutions, Standards to address AC to DC conversion andHVDC to DC conversion losses.
- Study and develop standards and solution to address needs of high energy consumer such as Data Centers, Commercial building etc.
- Offer assistance to BIS in drafting installation rules and guidelines for implementation of LVDC to deliver the stated objective of enhanced energy efficiency in high energy consumption environments.
3References
- LVDC Forum by IEEE =>
- Electricity sector in India=>
- Interview of Professor Ashok Jhunjunwala
- IEEE document =>
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