Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India

• TERI-NFA Working Paper No.6 - Role of technology advancement in promoting renewable energy based mini-grids

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• Smart Mini Grid: An innovative distributed generation based energy system
  Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT Asia), 2013 IEEE
  Mukesh Gujar, Alekhya Datta and Parimita Mohanty
  
  
  With the depleting energy resources, enhancing energy-security and energy-access, particularly in emerging economies is one of the major challenges that one has to deal with. In addition to managing the existing energy resources, generating power effectively and intelligently is an equally important agenda at the national level in India. Supplementing the establishment of large power plants from conventional energy sources, there is also a need to focus on distributed small scale generation of power particularly from renewable energy sources. Although Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) need additional infrastructure and investment to connect them to the grid, these technologies obviate the need for an expensive transmission system and reduce transmission and distribution (T&D) losses. A better way to realize the emerging potential of distributed generation is to take a system approach which views generation and associated loads as a subsystem or a `Micro-grid' [1]. During disturbances, the generation and corresponding loads can separate from the distribution system to isolate the Micro-grid's load from the disturbance without harming the transmission grid's integrity. To deal with these crucial issues of power and energy, the more appropriate solution is the Smart Mini Grid system which can optimally and intelligently manage the load and distributed generation resources so that maximum utilization of the renewable energy resources with a lower installed renewable energy capacity and smaller batteries can be ensured by coordinating the energy demands with the electricity production, fossil fuel generation can be minimized through the more efficient control of energy loads and power quality can be improved The paper presents the relevance of Smart Mini Grid as well as its existing challenges. It has also briefly pointed out the major initiatives taken by various institutions/industry in the smart mini/micro-grid sectors in India. The main purpose of this pap- r is to present the design of TERI's own Smart Mini Grid system which integrated various distributed energy sources such as Solar PV, small wind electric generator Biomass gassifier system, Diesel-Set (DG) and showcase how such implementation can be used in other similar applications for improving the efficiency, reliability and flexibility of the overall system.
  
• Role of smart technologies in promoting distributed generation based mini-grids: Based on project experiences and lesson learned
  Clean Energy Solutions: A Compilation of Studies from TERI India, Prepared for the 4th US-India Energy Partnership Summit,
  May 13-14, 2013, Washington DC
  Parimita Mohanty, Mukesh Gujar, Alekhya Datta, and K Rahul Sharma
  
  
  Energy is the key to economic development and sustenance of future world. Energy demand in India as well as in many countries across the world is ever increasing and expected to grow in future. If the Indian power scenario is viewed, although India's power sector has shown impressive growth over the last few years, the demand for power has increased more rapidly than its availability (The demand for electricity has increased at a rate of 6.27 per cent in the past two decades.) In addition to shortage of power and energy demand for the existing consumers, there is around 1.44 billion population in the world without access to electricity, out of which around 288 million of them are in India. Again India has more than 3.10 lakh telecom towers, 60 per cent of their power requirement are met by diesel gen-set which together consumes about 2 billion liters of diesel each year and result in 5.3 million tons of CO2 emission). Against this backdrop, Distributed Generation based power solutions have been considered as one of the feasible options, where Distributed Energy Resources can not only deliver power to the local areas (where it is installed and distributed) more efficiently and reliably, but it can also feed excess power, if any, to the utility grid. In addition, these systems are environmentally benign. Full text
  
• Accelerated Deployment of Smart Grid Technologies in India - Present Scenario, Challenges and Way Forward
  IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter: September, 2013 Issue (IEEE-PES ISGT 2014, USA)
  Er. Alekhya Datta and Dr. Parimita Mohanty
  
  
  The idea behind 'Smart Grid Vision for India' is to transform the Indian power sector into a secure, adaptive, sustainable, and digitally enabled ecosystem that provides reliable and quality energy for all with active participation of stakeholders. Realizing the growing importance of Smart Grid technologies in the Indian power sector, very recently Ministry of Power (MoP) in-collaboration with India Smart Grid Task Force (ISGTF) has shortlisted fourteen (14 Nos.) Smart Grid pilot projects that are planned to be executed in power distribution sector in India. As per the ‘Smart Grid Roadmap for India’, these pilot projects are expected to help technology section guides and business case developments for larger projects in the next phase, while showcasing the relevance of Smart Grid on different aspects such as, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Outage Management System (OMS), Peak Load Management System (PLMS), Renewable Energy (RE) Integration etc.
  
  The main objective of this article is to underline the present scenario of those selected Smart Grid pilots in India, including proposed state-of-the-art Technology Integration, Consumer Coverage (Base), and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This article will also capture the Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Smart Grid Maturity Model (SGMM), developed by the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition (GIUNC) as a management tool, towards the Smart Grid transformation to assess the performance (including, current status) of those utilities responsible for pilot demonstrations and provide necessary recommendations to use this framework for establishing future strategies and work plans as pertain to Smart Grid implementations in the country. This write-up will further emphasize on the progress of applicable Smart Grid interoperability and standards relevant to the Indian context, development of indigenous low-cost smart solutions, gap analysis and appropriate changes conducive to the deployment of Smart Grid pilot projects, and discussion on National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM) in India.
  
• A Perspective on Enterprise GIS in India
  IEEE Smart Grid Newsletter - July 2013, IEEE Smart Grid Portal
  Alekhya Datta, and Parimita Mohanty
  
  The integration of Enterprise GIS with different aspects of a smart grid can improve the efficiency of a utility's electrical system, enable intelligent demand side management and enhance energy security through sustainable business intelligence. Wider application of GIS will be particularly useful in India, where consumption monitoring, detection of tampering and reduction of commercial and technical line losses are high priorities.
  Full text
• Innovative Smart Mini-Grid based Off-Grid Power Solutions for enhancing Energy Security in Rural and Urban Scenario
  Smartelec 2013, 16-17 April 2013 at Vadodara, Gujarat
  Mukesh Gujar, Alekhya Datta, and Parimita Mohanty
  
  
  About 400 million peoples in India have no access to electricity. Of these, the majority lives in remote, non-electrified villages. Even in electrified areas, powers outages are the fact of life. To top it all the entire national grid had collapsed for 2 days in July. This blackout, now recognized as the world’s largest, affected the lives of more than 600 million people. Renewable energy sectors got specific attention in planning process in India since the Sixth Five Year Plan with specific allocated budget. In 7th plan, the focus was on development and dissemination of renewable energy systems, whereas from the 8th plan and onwards the emphasis is on developing integrated strategies to make renewable energy system techno-commercially viable. Solar Energy is the need for the developing country like India where large section of country’s population is primarily located in rural areas and lacks access to electricity. Electricity is vital for a better quality of life - along with reduction in poverty and improvement in education, health and livelihoods. Rural areas in the country mainly lack in distribution infrastructure and itself developing a reliable distribution infrastructure will have a major fixed cost which the utilities presently not in a position to support. With this backdrop, JNNSM Phase-II would focus on standalone solar off-grid generating systems which would facilitate the rural consumers to meet their routine requirements of electricity. During JNNSM Phase-II, it envisaged that around 20,000 villages shall be covered through 'Energy Access' scheme by way of deployment of Off-Grid electricity generation projects.
  
  The deployment of these systems in encouraged by a mix of capital subsidies and soft loans and also by appointed channel partners who could implement these systems. However, it is the private sector - a mix of social entrepreneurs, NGOs, non-profit organization and corporations which is playing a major role in deployment of these systems. With the falling cost of PV systems, increasing awareness and advances in technology ,adaptation of off-grid PV in set to increase at a fast pace. From a product based approach, off-grid PV is evolving into a system based approach. One area where solar has made significant inroads is in replacing the diesel used in telecommunication towers. In India there are about 450,000 telecommunication tower that consumes about 3.4 million liter of diesel every year. Of these, at least 200,000 towers can be powered by solar and several telecom companies have actively started to install off-grid PV systems to power these towers.
  
  This discussion paper conveys the role of technological advancement and its up-gradation, which can then be implemented using smart mini-grid system, applicable to both the segments (rural as well as urban and peri urban) and what all the steps can be followed in order to promote such systems in the field. In this discussion paper, three case studies on innovative off-grid power solutions from TERI‟s own work and extensive research has been considered, which describe how the advancement in technology and its innovative cost effective solutions to meet the energy requirement as per the local needs such as livelihood generations, creating local jobs etc. particularly in remote villages in the country.
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• A Pricing Strategy for Micro Enterprises in Decentralized Electricity Generation Projects based on Renewable Energy
  International Conference on Micro Perspectives for Decentralized Energy Supply, Technical University of Berlin, 27 Feb. - 2 March 2013
  K Rahul Sharma, Rohit Sen
  
  This paper analyses a Solar-PV based 'Multi Utility Business Centre' (MUBC) which provides electricity for productive applications. The analysis is of three components of this system, the Solar-PV power plant, the MUBC which owns the appliances, and the customers who obtain services from the centre. The objective is to develop a model for how different business activites can be prices, cross-subsidized and what effect the ratio of equity to grant has at various points in the system; for use in the design of sustainable business models for off-grid power.
  MPDES 2013
  
• Enterprise GIS and Smart Electric Grid for India's Power Sector
  IEEE Xplore (Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference 2013, Washington - DC), 24-27 Feb. 2013 [Print ISBN: 978-1-4673-4894-2]
  Alekhya Datta, and Parimita Mohanty
  
  
  Smart Electric Grid is an important as well as intelligent element towards the development of an energy independent and environmentally sustainable society. Although there is no universal definition for Smart Grid, it has various functionalities towards modernization of the electrical grid by using digital systems and addressing disturbances via automated prevention and various other novel ideas. But a smarter grid needs a real-time analysis of the network. Therefore to provide accurate scientific decisions, the idea of integrating enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS) with Smart Electric Grid presented in this paper so as to make the grid apt in advanced decision making. It also helps in modeling the workflow of a network by understanding the relationship between network and surroundings and by controlling all parts of the grid. With the increasing demand of electricity in almost every sector, power sector utilities of India need to perform more effectively and in efficient manner. For this purpose, a Smart Electric Grid along with enterprise GIS is one of the evolutionary idea which can facilitate a cleaner environment, efficient load management and fully automated systems. GIS enabled system also helps to establish a link between the surroundings, the consumers and the grid and thus making it proficient in automation and efficient energy consumption and customer awareness by maintaining a relational database including all the required spatial information. The main objective of this study is to showcase the integration of enterprise GIS with Smart Electric Grid to provide an end-to-end solution for the utilities to improve the efficiency of the electrical system, enable intelligent demand side management and enhance energy security through sustainable business model. Full text
• A Case of Community based Renewable Energy Project in India
  Conference on Innovation for Resilience and Transformation, The 3rd Environmental Innovators Symposium, December 2012, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan
  Banerjee Manjushree
  
  
  The paper presents a case study of use of solar photovoltaic based micro-grids for meeting basic lighting requirements of rural community during peak demand hours (6 pm to 10 pm). Thirty communities have adopted micro-level (75 Wp to 1 kWp) solar based off-grid systems, where the systems are owned and managed by local entrepreneurs with45% equity stake. Case study analysis of this project undertaken by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India highlights that in grid connected (or, otherwise) rural communities sans assured lighting services, latent market for decentralized alternatives can be tapped into for profitable business. An analysis of the project output concludes that decentralized solutions and private investments will play a major role not only in providing universal modern energy access but also in enhancing livelihood options at village level.
  
• Concept of Off-Grid solar multi-utility centre for livelihood generation in rural areas
  International Conference on Advances in Energy Research, IIT Bombay, 2011
  Nivedita Thakur, Parimita Mohanty, Akanksha Chaurey, Arvind Sharma and A.S.Srinidhi
  
  The paper presented at a conference reports the work carried out under one of the work-packages of the NFA with TERI (2008-2013) that includes a mandate of demonstration of customized SMUs in various locations in India. A pilot project under this concept that has been designed, developed and demonstrated in a remote village named Dakshin Dimoria in the state of Assam. This paper presents the various stages involved in design, development, and utilization of the SMU covering scoping study, demand assessment, customization of the SMU design according to available appliances, description of the various sub-systems, and services and utilization monitoring.
  ICAER 2011
  
• Madhya Pradesh Baseline and Technology Scoping Report
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• Odisha Baseline and Technology Scoping Report
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• Training and Capacity Building Report - Odisha (NFA)
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• Uttar Pradesh Baseline and Installation Report
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• Uttar Pradesh Technical Scoping Report for Solar DC Micro Grids
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• AC Minigrid Technical Performance Assessment Format
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Appropriate Battery Technologies for Small Scale Solar Applications
Date: 24 - 25 April 2014
Venue: TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

A Two day Training Programme on Appropriate Batteries used for various Applications was organized on 24-25 April 2014 at TERI University, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. The training programme was organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Regnant Group with the support of Battery Society of India and the Royal Embassy of Norway.

During TERI's experience of implementing clean energy systems under the Norwegian Framework Agreement (NFA) project (Work Package I: Clean Energy Interventions for Livelihood Generation), a need to enhance the skills of grassroots workers on battery testing and management was found.

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State level Practitioners Training Workhshop: Rural Livelihood and Access to Renewable Energy
Date: 2 January 2014
Venue: Bhubhaneshwar, Odhisha

TERI organised a Practitioner’s workshop on Augumenting Livelihoods through Renewable Energy in Rural Areas at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar (XIMB) on the 2nd of January 2014. This workshop, organised with the joint support of the Royal Norwegian Embassy (NFA Project - Clean Energy Interventions for Livelihood Generation) and the UK Research Council and DfID (OASYS South Asia Project) aimed to bring together practitioners working in the fields of energy and livelihoods to collectively discuss the synergies between renewable energy and livelihood generation in rural areas.

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TERI signs MoU with General MicroGrids Inc.
Date: 6 November 2013

TERI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the General MicroGrids Inc., USA, for Micro-Grid Project Collaboration to facilitate clean energy access in India. TERI has also joined Santa Fe Microgrid Systems Laboratory (MSL), and MSL Research Network (MRN) as a founding member. The initial MRN cohort comprises MSL members - Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and other international partners and regional anchors. TERI's state-of-the-art Smart Controller Laboratory (SCLab) will serve as the anchor Smart Grid/Micro-Grid/Mini-Grid research laboratory for the South Asian region.

Smart Design Technology for Clean Energy Applications Conference 2013
Date: 9 January 2013
Venue: Shangrila's Eros Hotel, Ashoka Road, New Delhi
Coordinators: Alekhya Datta, and Mukesh Gujar

Smart Design Technology for Clean Energy Applications Conference 2013' was jointly organized by TERI and National Instruments (NI) India on 9 January 2013 at Shangrila's Eros Hotel, New Delhi. The conference provided an international platform for comprehensive discussion on issues pertaining to clean energy, smart design techniques and their applications.

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Distributed Generation based Smart Mini Grid System using NI CompactRIO and LabVIEW
TERI has won the Second prize (Runner-up) award under the 'Research' category in the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards (GSDAA) 2012, organized by National Instruments (NI) which recognizes the most interesting applications using NI products in the field of Research.
Alekhya Datta, Mukesh Gujar, and Parimita Mohanty

TERI has developed first-of-its-kind Smart Mini-Grid (SMG) System in India, driven by state-of-art power electronics devices and controlled through ultra-fast digital technology based on National Instruments CompactRIO and LabVIEW which offers a higher degree of flexibility, reliability, efficiency and safety of complete power system.
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