Energetica India Magazine March 2022

Gridspertise presents its cutting-edge sustainable solutions for the Indian power distribution grids 54 energetica INDIA- Mar_2022 The energy transition and power grid modernization The next ten years will be decisive to taking on the challenges posed by cli- mate change and, maintaining global temperatures within the limits set by the Paris Agreement. Thanks to the acceleration of decarbonization of en- ergy production and the electrification of end uses, the path towards a net-zero emission future is becoming increasingly shorter. As the fifth largest economy in the world and, with a population of over 1.3 bil- lion people, India’s climate adaptation and mitigation ambitions are not just transformational for the Country itself, but for the whole world. Among its ambitious targets, India aims to meet 50% of its electricity require- ments with renewables by 2030, reduc- ing its economy’s emissions intensity by 45% and cutting emissions by one bil- lion tons of CO2. In this scenario, distribution grids will be the main enablers for the manage- ment of a growing renewable energy generation portfolio and to guarantee the highest quality of service for the electricity supply. However, current Indian power grid in- frastructure experiences high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) loss- es, drastically cutting utilities’ finances and limiting their ability to invest in critical infrastructure. Furthermore, low resilience to climate change events causes frequent power interruptions, im- pacting households and business opera- tions, reducing sales as well as delaying the supply of goods. At the same time, the technologies currently implemented are unable to communicate problems in real time, exacerbating the situation. For this reason, distribution networks will be a top priority for the sector, re- quiring huge investments for their re- newal and expansion. Smart meters: a first step in grid mod - ernization India plans to install 250 million smart meters in the next four years across all of its states, with the aim of reducing AT&C losses to 12-15% and cancelling the gap between the Average Cost of Supply and the Average Revenue Real- ized. Smart meters can help to stabilize the grid with granular information on con- sumption, allowing for real-time mon- itoring of electricity use, advanced management of the grid’s technical pa- rameters and detecting in near real-time critical events, such as blackouts. They also improve billing and collection effi - ciency, while supporting the introduc- tion of customized tariffs and the inte- gration of distributed renewable energy. Furthermore, Meter data management systems (MDMSs) help in the consolida- tion of data from meters, analyze data trends from readings and resolve issues of meter tampering, outages, theft, etc. Smart meters are just the first step to - wards grids digitalization, enabling the increase in network resilience, efficiency and sustainability. Gridspertise – born to accelerate the fu- ture of grids Gridspertise, a new company fully owned by Enel, the world’s largest pri- vately owned networks operator and a global leader in advanced digital meter- ing with more than 20 years of exper- tise in the field, is ready to contribute significantly to this plan. The NewCooffers innovative, flexible, sustainable and integrated solutions and services, in three main areas of transformation: - Metering and grid edge digitalization: Reliable, advanced and interactive me- tering solutions such as smart meters, software for meter data management, low voltage grid analytics, and AMI Service to Cash. - Network infrastructure digitalization: Smart grid solutions to enhance net- work resilience, efficiency, and sustain - ability as well as to boost the quality T D &