5 Facts About India’s Energy Crisis and How Schneider EcoStruxure Grid Is Minifying The Crisis

In the past few years, India has done pretty well as far as the adoption of modern day technology is concerned; right from the awareness of social media usage and penetration of the internet connection in the rural areas. Campaigns like ‘Digital India’ have also aided the process.

That said, under the guidance of the current Indian government, the nation did well in numerous departments, be it social issues or financial crisis. This raises a big question: where are we still lacking in making India a prosperous nation? And, the answer is the ‘Energy and Power sector’. Considering the present condition of India’s energy sector, the energy crisis is not a new story and has been prevalent for years now.

With this article, we hope to shed light on the present energy crisis in India, and how it influences the common people.

5. Fuel Availability Issue

There is a huge shortage of coal supply in the whole process of power generation. According to a report by Economic Times, overall coal supply by Coal India Ltd is restricted to around 65% of the actual coal requirement by coal-based thermal plants. This leads to an increased dependence on coal imports. In the end, it all adds up to the energy generation bill and results in high power generation costs.

4. Poor Financial Condition of State Discoms

There are factors that contribute to the poor financial health of the state discoms, such as outstanding debts and land acquisitions for power projects which ultimately push the capital expenditure to an unprofitable scenario.

3. 240 Million Indians Have Zero Access To Electricity

Even after the 70 years of Indian independence, it is sad to hear that 240 Million Indians have zero access to electricity supply. Here, we cannot solely blame the government for the present situation as they did whatever they could by forming big corporations such as NTPC Limited, NHPC Limited, and so on.

The main reason behind the whole scenario is a huge imbalance of demand & supply of electricity in India. The power sector is still unable to match up to the need for electricity requirements due to the shortage of equipment. The scarcity is huge in core devices like boilers, turbines, and generators resulting in zero supply to the rural territory since the grid does not reach certain areas.

2. Frequent Power Outages

This remains an unsolved puzzle due to the load generation imbalances in the system. So, let’s take a deeper sight into the matter; the disequilibrium of the load in the system happens because the consumer’s power requirements keeps changing. The rated supply frequency of India is 50.0 HZ and the ideal frequency should be close to the rated frequency at all times, which is not the case here.

1. There Is Surplus Power but We Still experience power cuts

As per a report, there is an electricity demand of 1.34L MW, but the supply capacity is 2.68L MW. There has been an improvement in power generation over the past years and the deficit has gradually decreased from 11 percent in 2008-09 to almost zero deficit in 2016-17. But, if there is surplus power then why are Indians still facing power cuts? The answer again is the poor financial health of state discoms due to which they are unable to buy electricity in sufficient quantity. Also, the transmission and distribution constraints are responsible for those power cuts.

Schneider’s EcoStruxure Grid is Eradicating the Crisis. Here’s How:

It’s time to have a look at the existing practical solution which will help Indians overcome power issues.

Recently in 2016, Schneider Electric, a France based multinational company launched their revolutionary EcoStruxure Grid. Based on the open and inter-operable EcoStruxure system architecture, it is a platform for the Internet of Things (IoT), and is structured for the grid market.

In simple terms, EcoStruxure Grid is designed to provide a unified structure for utilities to vanquish the magnifying problems of grid-related operations.

EcoStruxure is an architecture with a plethora of connected products at the root of its three-fold platform. These are attached in the modern-day substations that abolish energy impairment, maximise uptime of overall electrical systems, ensure sustainable and virtuous power quality, handle overall energy usage and borders users’ electricity bills. The digitised substation energy management system works as an on-premise solution for sustainability and energy safeness in different situations.

It retouches the utilities’ operations by unifying analytics, cloud, cybersecurity, mobility & sensing – enabling them to transact congestive, enriched, and cleaned data to fabricate significance. The interoperable IoT framework also helps the EcoStruxure Grid reach out to each degree of the grid with lower carbon, and smarter utility management. Now Schneider Electric India is bringing the same idea to the Indian power sector by implementing the EcoStruxure Grid so that it can bring value to the end consumers and reduce power cuts without compromising the environment. #EcoStruxure #Grid

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