— William Ash, Strategic Program Manager,
IEEE Standards Association
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William Ash discusses
the close linkages between Smart Grid, an active area for IEEE-SA
in India, and India's renewable energy endeavours. An interview by
Venugopal Pillai.
Please discuss the importance of renewable energy in a
developing country like India that is also seen to be a major
consumer of energy in the coming years.
India is one of the fastest developing economies in the world
and India's energy demand is growing all the time. However,
India is also one of the largest CO2 emitters in the world, which
means that country will have to stop relying so much on coal and
other fossil fuels and focus more on renewable energy sources.
The country has a vast supply of green energy resources, and
has a significant program for deploying these resources.
Adoption of renewable energy will help decrease the demand supply
gap and boost rural electrification. For India, an optimal
mix of both kinds of energy sources and integration of both
conventional and renewable energy into a Smart Grid is
essential to have a sustainable energy system.
India is the only country in the world that has a separate
ministry for renewable energy. Having said this, do you
think that the country's overall achievement and progress
is satisfactory?
According to a recent survey, India has an installed renewable
energy base of about 20 GW, which is around 11 per cent of the
country's total power capacity and accounts for 4 per cent of the
electricity mix. India today stands among the top five countries
of the world in terms of its renewable energy capacity. The
National Solar Mission seeks to facilitate the generation of
20,000 mw of solar power by 2022. India is also working on a
National Biomass Mission, which will help tap bio-energy
potential of over 25,000 mw. The ministry of new & renewable
energy looks into all the matters pertaining to clean and green
energy in India and it has initiated several programmes and
schemes in promoting non-conventional sources of energy such
as wind, biomass, solar energy, etc. In addition, the India Smart
Grid Task forum, set up last year, is working on accelerating the
implementation of the Smart Grid and a number of pilot projects
have already been deployed in Karnataka, West Bengal, etc.
What key policy changes would, in your opinion, help India
achieve more in its renewable energy pursuits?
Commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions coupled
with cheaper technology for renewable energies will spur their
growth, especially as the increasing shortage of oil and other
fossil fuels raises those costs. Policies also need to be changed
to attract massive investment to build the infrastructure and spur the technology innovations needed
that make renewable more affordable
and dependable. It is likely that
renewable energy will have a significantly
larger role in the global energy system in
the future than today.
Even as India stresses on renewable and
clean energy sources, its dependence on
fossil fuel (mainly coal) is unlikely to
mitigate. How can then India strike a
balance?
Coal at present constitutes a little over 50
percent of India's energy mix. Coal has
been the chief energy source for India
because it is found in abundance and it is cheaper to exploit than
some of the other energy resources. Meeting the nation's
anticipated energy needs with clean energy over the next
decade and beyond though, will require a significant investment
that must start immediately.
Please discuss in brief the role of IEEE-SA in the field of
renewable energy in India.
Smart Grids which will help integrate renewable energy into the
power grid and therefore increase efficiency is a strategic area of
focus for IEEE-SA in India. Industry standards are among the
most important foundational elements and
form the basis of a plug and work
architecture and hence we are actively
growing our engagement in India to
promote, educate and help evangelize
Smart Grid standards interests in the
country. The IEEE-SA has standards like
IEEE 2030TM and the IEEE 1547TM series
standards that identify and address the
interface and interconnection of renewable.
IEEE 1547.4TM, recently approved,
addressed islanding (mirco-grids).
Standards like these will allow renewable
energy to be resources for the grid.
Could you elaborate on how Smart Grid and renewable energy
are interlinked in the broader pursuit of energy efficiency?
Grid stability is a key consideration for interconnection of any
new system to the existing grid. For a conventional electricity
network based on a radial power distribution model, high levels
of renewable energy would pose some challenges related to the
efficiency and stability of interconnected systems. The variable
nature of renewable energy necessitates the development of
interconnection standards to enable the grid sustain variability
of the different sources of power without affecting the quality of
power adversely.