Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd: Empowering A Digital & Sustainable Future!

Since its inception in 1989, the maharatna PSU, has witnessed phenomenal growth and presently owns and operates gigantic pan India network of over 174,615 kms Transmission Lines and 273 sub-stations with its availability maintained over 99.5%. Approx 45% of India’s electric power is being wheeled through transmission system owned by POWERGRID.

POWERGRID has leveraged its expertise in the sector and provide consultancy to various state utilities, private entities in the wide range of transmission, distribution infrastructure, smart grid, etc and have played a pioneer role in early adoption of state of art technologies in Indian power sector. Leveraging its transmission assets, POWERGRID has also diversified into Telecom business through its wholly owned subsidiary “POWERGRID Tele Services Ltd”with its brand name ‘POWERTEL’ with Telecom Network of 82,294 km. Moving beyond Inter-State transmission domain, POWERGRID now owns and operates Intra-State transmission system in the state of Uttar Pradesh & Madhya Pradesh acquired through tariff based competitive bidding.

POWERGRID Strongly supports the vision of low carbon economy with its full commitment towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Net Zero Emission and other internationally recognised standards and initiatives. POWERGRID has committed itself to source 50% of its electricity consumption from Non-Fossil Fuel energy sources by year 2025.

RENEWABLE INTEGRATION

To realise Country’s ambitious goal of achieving 50 % cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030, POWERGRID is geared -up to play a pivotal role in integration of renewable energy sources into the National Grid through creation of requisite transmission capacities across country to ensure a seamless transition to a greener and sustainable future. Through establishment of Green Energy Corridors and Renewable Energy Management Centres(REMC), POWEGRID has played a defining role in Integration of Renewable Energy and continue to develop transmission system for further integration of the Renewable Energy. A comprehensive transmission system has been evolved to further integrate potential Renewable Energy Zones by Govt of India and POWERGRID is poised to play a significant role in transmission capacity addition for energy transition taking place in the country.

FUTURE-READY

With cutting-edge digital initiatives, POWERGRID is transforming the power sector, making it smarter, sustainable and more resilient. In the journey towards seamless flow of power across the regions, the Indian power sector achieved a major milestone when Leh, UT of Ladakh was successfully connected to National Grid. The National Grid is a high-voltage integrated transmission network, an electric super highway through which power flows across length and breadth of the country. A strong interconnected One-Nation-One-Grid spread over large geographical areas of non-uniformly distributed resources plays a vital role in facilitating transfer of bulk power from remotely located generating station to load centers. The National Grid features latest technologies available in the world today, like UHVDC (Ultra High Voltage DC) transmission, STATCOMs, WAMs, PMUs, REMCs etc.

DIGITAL INITIATIVES

Excellence, expertise and innovation are forte of POWERGRID that are fully leveraged in the opportunities presented by digital era to embark on a transformative journey. Its strengths are exemplified in the constant innovation and technological up-gradation in building, operation and maintenance of its complex and sophisticated systems. The 3Ds- Digitization of input data, Digitalisation of processes and Digital transformation of business activities; are the corner stones of the transmission giant.

DIGITIZATION: The following emerging digital interventions are driving its excellence in all business areas.

– Digital Substation: The creation of India’s first 400 kV digital substation at Malerkotla is a sterling example of “Digital-First” approach implementing world’s leading technologies like Centralized Asset Management Centre. Robots for substation inspection is under development.

– 3D Modelling of sub-station: With an aim to improve visualization of assets from remote locations and develop Digital Twins of physical assets, an effort has been made toward 3-D modelling of substation.

– Asset Health Indexing of Transformers & Reactors: These helps in early detection of any developing faults within the transformers.

– Drone Patrolling- To monitor widely spread transmission lines POWEGRID introduced drone-based patrolling.

– QR code-based Equipment Identification & Data Digitization: To optimize the data logging process and remove duplicity in efforts, a QR-code based Equipment Identification and data digitization application has been deployed.

– PGDARPAN (POWERGRID Digital Application for Routine Patrolling & Assessment of Network) along with PG-AMRITis an image processing-based defect identification module using Artificial Intelligence/ML techniques developed for defect identification and rectification.

With digitalization of all the work-processes and digitization of input data in POWERGRID, implementation of e-office, e-billing through SAP and procurement. Understanding the prudence of Cyber-security in the digital age, the PSU has also implemented robust cybersecurity measures to safeguard its power infrastructure. These cutting-edge digital initiatives are transforming the power sector, making it smarter, sustainable and more resilient, empowering it to be Future Ready for spearheading growth of an ever-evolving nation.

(A marketing initiative by Open Avenues)