In the backdrop of the world’s biggest power blackout faced by India in July 2012 due to a grid failure which impacted more than 620 million people across 22 states. General Electric (GE) was awarded a $52.2 million contract in January 2014 to install WAMS across all five regional grids of north, south, east, west and northeast India. The company has commissioned 1st phase of the project.
GE announced it has commissioned the 1st phase of the world’s largest Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS) for Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) for the Northern Grid in India.
The project is part of the Unified Real Time Dynamic State Measurement (URTDSM) initiative that entails monitoring and controlling of the electricity supply across the country which will positively impact India’s total population. The project has been executed by GE T&D India Limited, listed entity of GE Power’s Grid Solutions business in India.
The project will enable PGCIL to monitor power flow across 110 substations in the Northern Grid (NR) and respond to fluctuations within a fraction of a second, which will be critical in addressing power demand-supply imbalances and ensuring grid stability benefitting from the integration of renewable energy with the grid.
When fully commissioned, this new WAMS solution will be the world’s largest comprising 1,184 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and 34 control centers across India, 350 substations in the national grid.
The power industry is experiencing a fundamental change in the way it is managed and controlled. Increasing energy demand, restricted transmission grid expansion, and increasing volatility due to more renewable and distributed generation all add complexity across the electricity network such solution come in handy while managing such a vast grid.
Reference – GE Newsroom, GE Grid Solutions website, Economic Times