Smart grid is an electrical grid which uses ICT to gather information on power demands of an area and acts on the information to supply it. In our technology roundtable on ‘Smart Grid: The power of ICT in energy’ held last fortnight at our office, experts on the subject concluded that we need to understand the Indian requirements when it comes to smartness in the power sector. An emphasis was also laid on the need for standards and regulations for the smart grid.

Harsh Sharma of BSES Yamuna highlighted that we need to define what we exactly need out of smart grid for our country. He said, “There is no end to smartness. What is smart today may be outdated tomorrow. There will certainly be a smarter technology in place in future.” A similar opinion was expressed by Ajay Kumar of BSES Rajdhani. He said, “I believe this is the biggest challenge to understand what we need, whether market will be conducive to it and, above all, whether people will be able to afford and accept it.”

Kavinder Singh Kohli of Feedback Infra mentioned that we are following the US as far as protocols and standards for smart grid are concerned. He was of the opinion that we need to evolve a solution which is India-specific, and according to our domestic needs and environment.

A word of caution came from Rajneesh Kumar Srivastava of Delhi Transco Limited, who said that we need to move carefully with respect to smart grid implementation and we should not jump into anything which we would regret later.