Vinod Bhat
New Delhi: The Consultative Committee meeting for the Ministry of Power, was held today in Chandigarh. The meeting on the subject of ‘Grid Stability’ was chaired by Shri Manohar Lal, Union Minister for Power.
The meeting was attended by the Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for Power, Member of Parliaments (MPs) who are members of the Consultative Committee, Secretary, Ministry of Power, and senior representatives from key power sector institutions including the Central Electricity Authority, Grid Controller of India Limited and Central Transmission Utility of India Limited.
The Committee deliberated on the emerging requirements of grid stability in view of India’s growing electricity demand, large-scale renewable energy integration and increasing share of inverter-based generation resources and bulk loads. Discussions covered secure renewable integration, transmission strengthening, energy storage, dynamic reactive power support, grid flexibility, compliance with technical standards, forecasting, power quality and resilience of the grid.
It was noted that grid stability is central to energy security and that India’s clean energy transition must be supported by a reliable, flexible and resilient power grid.
Members appreciated the initiatives already being taken, including resource adequacy planning, ancillary services, energy storage promotion, deployment of STATCOMs and synchronous condensers, PMU-based monitoring, black-start mock drills, and strengthening of technical standards. Committee appreciated the record renewable capacity integration of renewable capacity of more than 50 GW in a year.
The following actions for ensuring grid stability in the Indian grid with large penetration of inverter-based generation resources and bulk loads were appreciated:
- Avoiding mismatch between commissioning of transmission lines and RE generation projects to avoid curtailment.
- Promoting pumped storage projects for long-duration storage to ensure resource adequacy and provide inertial support.
- Encouraging suitable bulk consumers closer to large renewable generation complexes to optimize transmission investments.
- Planning and deployment of equipment such as STATCOMs and synchronous condensers for voltage stability and system strength support.
- Establishing suitable regulatory and commercial mechanisms to harness flexibility services from renewable energy sources and storage systems.
- Periodic and timely review of technical standards for new technologies such as battery energy storage systems, grid-forming inverters, electrolyzers and data centre loads.
- Strengthening compliance monitoring through periodic self-audit and compliance reporting by grid-connected entities.
- Improving renewable energy forecasting through better weather data, calibration and maintenance of weather stations, and installation of automatic weather stations in renewable energy plants.
- Enhancing grid resilience through strengthening of transmission and distribution infrastructure in weather-prone corridors, maintaining emergency restoration systems and augmenting black-start capability for faster restoration.
- Developing a suitable framework for power quality and harmonics assessment in view of increasing penetration of inverter-based resources.
The meeting concluded with a resolve to work collectively towards a clean, reliable, flexible, secure and resilient Indian grid.
