The View from the Wide Side: Wide-Area Monitoring Systems in India

Abstract

The Indian electricity grid is among one of the largest power grids in the world, with an installed generating capacity of 259 GW as of February 2015. The Indian power sector started its consolidation and expansion in early 1990 with the establishment of a central utility, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL). India's power system is managed by the five regional load dispatch centers (RLDCs), one for each regional power system. The implementation of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and energy management systems (EMSs) took place from 2002 to 2006. The national load dispatch center (NLDC), which coordinates operations of the five RLDCs, started operations in 2009. Interconnections among the five Indian regional grids started in the early 1990s, and all regional grids have been synchronized since 31 December 2013. Currently, the five RLDCs and the NLDC are managed by the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO), a subsidiary of PGCIL. The Indian grid has been able to maintain a reasonable degree of stability over the years, despite the exponential expansion of loads and renewables integration.