Future Grid Control Centres for Indian Power System

SUMMARY The Control Centres in India are handling Power Generation of the order of 185.5 GW and controlling power flow throughout the country from 5 Regional Load Dispatch Centres (RLDC) and 30 State Load Dispatch Centres (SLDC). These Control Centres were commissioned progressively between 2002 and 2006 under Unified Load Dispatch and Communication (ULDC) Project on Regional basis. The ULDC project established integrated hierarchical SCADA/EMS system which included 80 Control Centres, 1015 RTUs and associated Communication System based on Fiber Optic, Microwave and PLCC. RLDC being at the top of the hierarchy at Regional level coordinates the day-to-day Grid operation of the region with SLDCs, Central Sector Utilities, IPPs, Traders and various stake holders. After commissioning of these Grid Control Centres, users have gained wide experience on the Grid Management over past few years. Due to unbundling of Power Sector in India many changes have occurred in the business environment. With enactment of the Electricity Act 2003 and establishment of regulatory framework at Central and State levels, the Grid Operation has transformed significantly in Indian Power Sector. A decentralized market mechanism with floating frequency and penalties in case of deviation from interchange schedule (ABT) and competition in the sector by allowing Open Access in Transmission System has further complicated Grid Operations. As Indian Economy pushes targets a 10 percent annual GDP growth rate, unprecedented growth of Indian Power System is being witnessed with commissioning of advanced technologies like UHVAC, HVDC, WAMS, FACTS etc. System Operator is now equipped with numerous controls for better Grid Management. Such phenomenal transformation in the Indian Power Sector coupled with developments in Information and Communication Technologies are leading to application obsolescence of the present systems in Control Centres. Even Hardware and Software have also become obsolete in terms of technology such as Operating Systems, Application versions and compatibility of hardware with newer version. Thus, the need for system upgrade is being felt now by all stakeholders. In this changed scenario of independent corporate and regulatory regimes in states and regions, these upgrades are not expected to come in the same time frame. Thus interoperability of the future power monitoring system has become inevitable. Looking at the 24x7 business continuity requirement, the system upgrades are more challenging than the