National electricity planner and use of distributed energy sources in India

Abstract

Abstract Indian electricity supply system mostly consists of a centralized, large and conventional generation system. Gradually, as the scenario of huge increase in demand as compared to generation was imposed on the system, the electric utilities have been restructured in various ways. With the restructuring process, the system operators are planning to implement alternative energy resources in the system. Nowadays, these resources are being utilized through small and modular energy conversion systems, known as distributed generation (DG) based on conventional and renewable energy resources. By implementing DG in the system, the environmental impact has been reduced along with the enhancement of reliability and quality in the power supply. Therefore, it is very important to choose DG at various locations in a country like India, because of varying weather conditions and resource availability. Determining DG options at different locations depends upon various attributes like economic, technical, environmental and resource availability, etc. Sometimes, it becomes difficult in part of authorities to arrive at a suitable decision on choosing the type of DG technology for a particular region or area. Overall Indian power system is divided into five broad regional grids viz., northern regional grid (NRG), eastern regional grid (ERG), southern regional grid (SRG), north eastern regional grid (NERG), western regional grid (WRG), operated and maintained by the respective regional load dispatch centers (RLDCs). The main objective of this work is to determine various DG technology options in each of the five regions in India with consideration of the above mentioned attributes. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been used to identify the relative importance of the chosen attributes at various regions. Based on this, suitable DG options are determined.