IBM and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Collaborate to Accelerate Smart Grid Deployment in India

As a joint venture between Tata Power and the Delhi Government, Tata Power Delhi Distribution sought a solution that would enhance the reliability and efficiency of energy distribution across the Northern and North western part of Delhi. Additionally, the solution would also help empower its over 1.3 million electric consumers to manage their own energy usage.

"TPDDL is committed to accelerate the smart grid deployment which will give customers more visibility and control in managing their energy usage and transform the electric network into a robust, secure and intelligent system. This is an important milestone for the energy distribution in India as we intensify our efforts to empower consumers and provide them choices of usage of their electrical appliances and manage their load efficiently.” said Praveer Sinha, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, Tata Power Delhi Distribution.

In India, aggregated technical and commercial losses that occur due to electricity transmission and energy theft are estimated at about 26.4 per cent on a national average. The Government of India has launched the Restructured-Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Program (R-APDRP) with the aim to reduce these losses in the country and to improve the power distribution sector of state utilities, during 11th Five-Year Plan period, 2007-2012. The Five-Year Plans are centralized and integrated national economic programs.

As a part of its smart grid initiative, Tata Power Delhi Distribution will collaborate with IBM to develop an advanced metering infrastructure and demand response pilot program that will automate and regulate supply of electricity to consumers in sync with the fluctuating demand.

This project will help add a layer of digital intelligence to the grid and ensure reliability when the demand rises exponentially and the supply falls due to heavy consumption. In addition, this will provide customer service improvements including new digital meters, enhanced self-service options and access to a customer portal to manage energy use.

“In the near future, utilities will look to integrate insights into their traditional grid operation solutions and also into customer, energy management and environmental domains,” said Rahul Sharma, Executive Director and Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India & South Asia. “The advanced meter management solution builds real-time intelligence into the system, integrating information into business and operations systems quickly and easily.”

IBM will support Tata Power Delhi Distribution to create system architecture, ensure adherence to international smart grid standards, optimize business process and incorporate dynamic business analytics function to offer actionable insights. In addition, Tata Power Delhi Distribution will leverage IBM expertise to integrate new advanced metering, meter data management, and demand response systems with existing applications including customer and geographic information systems.

An Advanced Infrastructure based demand response is a complex exercise and has not been done in India before, and this engagement is the first step in creating an end-to-end intelligent utility system to manage generation short fall by peak shaving of actual load. Peak shaving is a technique that is used to reduce electrical power consumption during periods of maximum demand on the power utility and enable consumer to redistribute loads to different period of the day, thus saving substantial amounts of money due to peaking charges.

When complete, the multi-phased engagement is expected to enhance the relationship between Tata Power Delhi Distribution and it’s consumers thereby enabling more efficient consumption of electricity.

IBM is involved in more than 150 Smart Grid engagements in mature and emerging markets.