HOW MICROGRID APPROACH TO ELECTRICITY COULD HELP THE GOVERNMENT ?

In a world where geopolitics is an outcome of geo-economics which in turn has energy as its single largest component, it is no rocket science to figure out that an economy can be expected to run only as long it's fuel tank is full. The only way to overcome energy risk is to conserve and optimise energy use, reduce or eliminate dependence on imports by developing domestic resources including renewable energy and invest in energy efficiency research. This is easier said than done. However, if our Government(s) lead by example, we can witness immediate results. The Central & State governments in India together have the funds, expenses and employee population comparable to a small rich country. Between just two central ministries, Defence and Railways, there is enormous scope of energy savings by power savings alone.

An indicative potential of 1 GWh annual power savings in Government departments is a realistic and achievable target in the current plan period itself. The trick lies in adopting the microgrid approach. Additional benefit accrued is acquiring carbon credits by use of renewables, which could be monetised to enhance savings to the state. The capital investments could thus be designed to be recoverable more or less by the end of one Plan period. More importantly, the power infrastructure could acquire a high level of resilience against central failures including from cyber-attacks.

Just how would savings be generated? The characteristic of the microgrid approach is distributed generation. This way there is no all pervading effect of a failure in central generation facility and a sharp reduction in transmission losses is achieved as power is produced and consumed locally. The Government inventory includes a few million generators of various capacities. These are mostly used in standalone mode to power the loads. Since the generation capacity is rarely matched to the load, there is an inevitable wastage of fuel. The microgrid approach leads to generator-load matching by use of intelligent controllers and energy storage devices which reduce the requirement of running the generators. Use of renewables in a microgrid further enable reduction in generator use. With good practices, it is feasible to achieve recurring energy savings in the 20-30 % band consistently. When we consider the supply chain logistics involved in fuel transportation, a 20-30% drop in generator fuel requirement could lead to higher cost savings due to reduced logistic effort and expense. In case of Defence and Internal Security organisations, this is a significant potential saving. Assuming only a third of an organisational fuel budget is earmarked for purchase of generator fuel, 10% of the total fuel budget could be saved imparting user the flexibility to deal with enhanced vehicle usage demand or an unanticipated budget cut. A similar saving in power bills of grid electricity consumption could be expected.

The question which arises now is - what is required to adopt this approach? The solution to any issue commences with the acceptance that a problem exists. In this case, the Government has to legislate that a certain percentage of power in our energy mix should mandatorily be generated from renewable sources and consumed by every Government department. The microgrid approach could be adopted in organisational engineering practice and incentivised with clear targets and timelines. Once it is absorbed in the system as a practice, it could be taught in the relevant schools of instruction and be embedded in the culture of the beneficiary organisation.

Most good ideas are often lost behind impenetrable trade jargon quoted by 'experts'. Even if someone at the 'top' understands it, it is unlikely to be implemented because of perceived complexity. Microgrid approach is a method to impart some degree of power assurance and control to the user while significantly reducing losses. Hence it is important that the rationale of microgrids is understood by the layperson end user. Only then can we expect to hear the murmurs for change, Strength Five.

WHAT IS THIS MICROGRID APPROACH ?

A 'Grid Interactive' Microgrid

For all my friends who are not too interested in technology, I hope this post meets part of  their requirement.

Consider a village which has several small rain-fed water tanks and wells with a cumulative three days supply of normal daily water use. The village gets a water truck every day from the nearest town where there is a large water source. Since the road is long and prone to disruptions, the village does not get water for some days at a stretch. The people of the village have accordingly adopted a practice that the day their water supply does not come, each family reduces it's water consumption to drinking, cooking and essentials. Baths are postponed. The aim is to stretch the village tank reserves as long as possible to cater for longer disruption. This way the three day water tank reserves serve the village for 7 days. In 7 days, either the water supply resumes or evacuation of the settlement is organized after appreciating the size and extent of disruption.



                           An 'Off Grid' Microgrid Arrangement

If we substitute 'water' with 'power', the same practice is the fundamental basis of the microgrid approach. The wells correspond to the DG sets, rain is the equivalent of renewable energy generation and the water tanks are equivalent to energy storage devices. They are linked together by pipelines which serves each household exactly like generators, storage and consumers are connected by a local 220V/50 Hertz electricity transmission lines to form a microgrid. The water supply arrangement to the village by truck corresponds to the grid power supply - it may not exist in many cases in actual situation (an off-grid condition in power jargon). The practice of using water only for essentials on learning about water supply disruption is known as 'load-prioritization'. The duration for which the village can subsist after 'load-prioritization' is known as the 'Autonomy' of the village. The switch to usage of local water reserves on disruption of water supply from town is known as 'Islanding'. The switch back to supplied water on resumption of water truck arrangements is equivalent of 'Grid Restoration'. The act of using part of water supply to recharge depleted water tanks is exactly like recharging batteries or other forms of energy storage devices. If the village receives plentiful rain and a very large water tank is constructed to store the runoff, it may become perennially autonomous for water. Also it would be in a position to supply water to the town instead of importing it. This is a design decision. Similarly a microgrid can be perennially autonomous by design and export surplus power to the grid.

The concept is neither new nor original. In India we have been practicing this approach in various walks of life to overcome resource scarcity and uncertainty. It has worked well through the ages and is embedded in our culture.This is the approach adopted to electrify remote villages in India and neighbouring countries, Africa and Latin America. In the easiest terrain, it costs Rs 6-7 lakhs to build a km of low voltage distribution line of the kind which supply our homes. An entire village microgrid can be installed at a cost of Rs 4-5 lakhs per Kilowatt using solar panels and lead acid batteries. If LED bulbs and DC fans are used, A 2 Kilowatt microgrid is adequate for a village. A tubewell may require 6-12 Kilowatts in contrast.

Considering the fact that long distribution lines to villages rarely carry power for more than a few hours, the conductors are prone to theft. It makes no commercial sense to have them in first place as cost of establishment and maintenance is high, longer wires mean more resistive losses, more power theft and theft of power cables itself. The revenue from poor settlements just does not exist. As a result the microgrid model using prepaid metering is sustainable commercially and ideal for community development.

In my next post I will cover the advantages of microgrid approach in Government assets. Thank you for bearing with me.

STORY OF AN EMERGING 'POWER'

This is one story no patriotic Indian would like to hear. Thanks to our media, especially the print media, many of us now know where we are going wrong in bringing power to the consumer.

The problem is not simple and has many facets and interrelationships. In a nutshell, we did not have enough power for our needs as a nation. This meant less productivity, less comfort and inevitably an inequitable distribution of power due to revenue realisation factors. But this was the old story.

The new story which has emerged is that huge and adequate generation capacity was created to meet the projected demand, which is now lying mostly idle due to two main reasons. The first reason is that the states don't want to purchase power as they are not presently capable of stopping power theft for whatever reasons.This means that the cost of power purchase is greater than the selling price.This difference is cumulatively so huge that significant public money has been used to write-off the losses. The second reason is even more interesting. The Government cleared creation of generating capacity but is unable to provide fuel linkage to power producers. And it so happens that enough indigenous fuel is available but controlled by either Govt monopoly as in case of coal or by a few private players who are least interested in providing it at legislated prices, as in case of gas. This situation is not likely to unravel soon inspite of recent corrective policy measures.

If we dig deeper, we discover that power is only a subset of energy. And the overall energy sector is beset with woes, many of which are of our own making. This is not surprising since we don't have a single common energy ministry to start with - instead we have Coal, Power, New &Renewable Energy and Petroleum ministries. There could still be some co-ordination if at the legislative level there were a departmental Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy. Unfortunately for India, even this is not so.

The story of this emerging power called India is not a lack of resources but a lack of accountability, planning and execution at multiple levels. With this as background, the ideal contemporary practice identified to improve our power resource utilisation is an approach called the Microgrid. It is not a product but a method, an arrangement or even a philosophy of optimally  utilising available generation resources, including renewable generators, on prioritized loads. Importantly it places a degree of control in the hands of the user community. In our context it holds promise to provide energy access in remotest areas as well as energy assurance. With integration of renewable energy generators, the full potential of a microgrid is exploited leading to significant savings in fossil fuel consumption.

I will cover the principle of Microgrids in my next post. It is adequate to say that having examined the concept, it took no time for me to get converted to an ardent follower of the Microgrid philosophy. It delivers real tangible results immediately. At many places we already have it but we may not be calling it that. If Gandhiji were alive today, he would have gladly agreed that it gives 'swaraj' to the user community. Hopefully our leadership will eventually hear of this and understand it's significance Strength Five.

Distributed but Connected

A couple of decades back, there was a great degree of relish in getting Mangoes from Malda, Litchis from Dehradun or Almonds from Srinagar. Each region and sub region in India was distinct and known for it's own local culture, dialect and flavours. Since connectivity and transportation were limited in reach and availability, people spent most of their time in a limited area leading to evolution of the region's uniqueness in most aspects. Each region's unique produce was valued as an exclusive item in other regions. Diversity was a way of life. Be it production of food and goods, or irrigation and water storage, things happened in a distributed and sustainable pattern. Local problems found local solutions with local laws and local adjudication.

The effect of industrialisation and Western way of life was to create a homogeneous and connected nation where anything could be produced anywhere in identical manner and transported to any place quickly. People migrated, cultures mixed and regions decreased in pre-eminence. Local culture got replaced by the ubiquitous media and city culture in the newer generations. Large, central projects became the order of the day at the cost of regional capabilities and knowledge, be it power, irrigation, education, healthcare, production of goods or delivery of services and governance. The control over the destiny of a regions populace shifted from local bodies to central bodies. Central systems and control superceded local systems and autonomy.

Along with this change characteristic of industrial age came the attendant problems of failures of central systems affecting large areas simultaneously, thus overwhelming mitigating capabilities and resources. An influential coterie had to capture power at only a few points of power to gain control over the lives and destiny of a large number of people. Mega scale of doing things led to mega disasters and amplified risks. The mega employment centres caused large migration from vast rural areas to a few urban centres with limited space, leading to a struggle for existence and rising crime. The reason was centralisation of resources.

It was recognised by the intellectual community that the answer for better human existence lay in geographic decentralisation of powers and resources so as to reach the regions and sub regions of the country. The regional communities had to be empowered to flourish at home and only move by choice. They had to be economically empowered by means of better physical and electronic connectivity to extend the reach of their produce , goods or services, globally. A former President of India even named and supported a Government initiative called PURA - an acronym for Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areas. This kind of society 'Distributed' in form yet 'Connected' in practice can effectively find it's own innovative solution to every conceivable challenge, individually or collectively.

We hope this insight is available constantly and consistently to every responsible citizen so that our collective actions make this challenging aim a reality. Let us take our minds back to political slogans to which India actually connected - Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan and even Jai Vigyan. The aspiration of any citizen does not lie in getting the most, it lies in being treated equally with equal access to opportunity. When this is accepted by the nation's leadership, we would have moved closer to our tryst with destiny which commenced on 15th of August, 1947.

 

Confirmation of Prognosis

In my post of 16 Oct 2011, I made some broad observations on some things to come. The newsarticle reproduced above is a confirmation of one aspect. This is an example of good intellectual reporting which enhances the credibility of our print media.