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in India & its Strategies Challenges in Power System Planning

Abstract --This paper presents an overview of Indian power system transmission and its planning. Some of the important aspects related to power system development are discussed briefly. The presence and advantages of national grid has been explored. Private sector participation in pursuance to Govt. of Indias liberalization policy in transmission sector has been critically analyzed. Index Terms -- Power system Planning, Challenges, Strategies, Super Grid, EHV System, Integration of grid.

A. Paikray, S. R. Satpathy, M. K. Kar and G. R. Biswal

Some of the important aspects related to the power system development and its planning in India have been discussed in the following paragraphs: II.GENESIS The genesis of development plans for the power sector indicates that though the power sector has been a priority sector in Indian planners, due importance has not been given to the development of transmission and distribution systems. All along priority has been given to the generation capacity addition aspects than to the transmission and distribution (T&D) aspects. In fact the share of T&D outlay has been progressively decreasing with time. For example the T&D outlay in the first five year plan period (1952-57) was about 53.9% of the total outlay in power sector which has come down to 25.9% in 1991-92. Further there had been tendency to achieve the short term goal rather than to pursue integrated long term objectives. As a result the growth of the transmission system has not been commensurate with the growth of power generation capacity addition considering the length and breadth of the country. III. LOAD FORECASTING Load forecasting is the starting point for power system planning and development, accuracy and effectiveness of which solely depends upon the accuracy of the load forecasting. Therefore, the emphasis has to be laid on making short term as well as long term load forecasting as accurately as possible so that the transmission system can be planned with greater foresight for optimal and economic system development. At present, load growth in various regions is very uneven resulting in concentration of load at certain centers e.g. Delhi, Bombay, Indore, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. This leads to several problems while planning transmission systems. Therefore, emphasis has to be given for uniform load development in the region as far as possible. IV. GENERATION PLANNING Past experience has shown that the firm identification of generation project has left much to be desired, especially over a longer prospective. System planners plan and design their system based on certain assumption for a particular time frame considering all the generation which is to come by that time frame. Over the years it has been seen that there is yawning gap between planning and implementation. This has lead to either redundancy of the system or overloading of the system due to obvious reasons but for no fault of the system planner. This entails that a systematic approach should be adopted for planning of the generation projects. Also there should be firm identification of all the major generating

I.INTRODUCTION

he objective of the power system planning is to determine the timing and type of new transmission facilities required in order to provide adequate transmission network capability to cope with generation capacity additions and load flow requirements. The process of transmission system planning is a continuous effort which is repeated with diminishing detail for each year of a long range (say 10 15 years) planning horizon with the key objective to minimize the long range capital investment and operating costs involved in providing an adequate level of system reliability with due consideration of environmental and other relevant issues. Thereby, Networks are evolved over the years rather than planned in a clear-cut manner and then left untouched. The power system planning concept in our country have undergone an evolutionary change since independence and we have come a long way from having almost no transmission system before independence to the formation of national grid and now we are on the threshold of formation of Super Grid. However, still the power supply situation in the country is characterized by shortage of peak power and energy and the situation is likely to continue in the foreseeable future also. This is generally because there has always been a wide gap between planning and implementation of generation projects. During recent times, this gap has further increased mainly due to severe resource constraints. Especially in the XI plan period (2007-12), Indian Power sector may face a jolt due to quite low capacity additions. To meet with the energy crunch, the maximum utilization of the available capacity is the need of hour. This offers a major challenge to the power system planners to develop and optimize the system so that increased demand can be met with minimum investment but with security and reliability. This situation may necessitate taking up of several schemes for transmission system enhancement/reinforcement unrelated to addition of generation capacity the justification of which may not be a smooth sailing for system planner.
1 A. Paikray, 2S. R. Satpathy, 3M. K. Kar and 4G.R. Biswal are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Research Scholars, VSS University of Technology, Burla, Odisha. 1 email:-abhishek.giet@gmail.com, 2email:-smaran24@gmail.com 3 email:-manojkar132@gmail.com, 4email:-gyanar.biswal@gmail.com

schemes. This shall help in planning the transmission system in an optimal and economic manner. V. INTER-REGIONAL LINKS Planning hitherto in the country was done generally on the basis of the regional self-sufficiency. The country has been demarcated into five electrical Regions viz. Northern (NR), Eastern (ER), Western (WR), Southern (SR) and North Eastern (NER). However, NR, ER, WR and NER have been synchronously interconnected and operating as single grid Central Grid (capacity about 110,000MW). The Southern region is asynchronously connected to the Central Grid through HVDC links. Of late, interconnection of each region leading to formation of National Grid has been felt necessary for the reasons described below: (a) Because of spatial distribution of natural resources viz, coal, gas, water etc. For power generation some regions have predominantly thermal type of generation (e.g. Eastern Region and Western Region). In these thermal dominant regions, thermal units are made to run according to variation of the load throughout the day. As a result during off-peak hours substantial backing down of thermal units are required to be done while on the other hand other neighboring regions are falling short even in meeting its overall daily energy requirements. Interconnections of regions shall certainly improve the overall hydro-thermal mix, besides increasing plant load factor of thermal units resulting in additional energy generated with the same installed capacity. Thus we can save the cost of installation/construction of the equivalent capacity power plants. (b) Even in case of hydro dominated regions, during off-peak hours, the hydro units can be shut down and system demand can be met by importing power from thermal dominant regions and stored water can be used during peak hours for meeting a higher peak demand. (c) If the demand for power exceeds the supply, generation plants and transmission equipment can shut down which, in the worst cases, can lead to a major regional blackout such as July 2012 India blackout was the largest power outage in history. The above factors clearly indicate that to start with, it is necessary to have at least five inter-regional links to interconnect regions with each other so as to facilitate energy exchange throughout the country. VI. LARGE RESOURCE HEAD BASED POWER STATIONS India is endowed with substantial fossil fuel resources as well as significant hydro potential suitable for power generation. But most of these resources are concentrated in few parts of India. Now the situation has reached to a level

that some of the regions do not have adequate resources and to set up new plants in this region, coal has to transport from other regions which is not desirable from technical, economical and environmental point of view especially when coal has very high ash content. Therefore several new resource-head based large size projects having beneficiaries in two or more regions have been planned. The beneficiaries of these projects are generally located across the regional boundaries, several hundred to more than thousand kms away. This necessitates transmission system to cut across regional boundaries. Transmission requirement for such projects is characterized by heavy investment. The present technologies used for thermal power generation are Supercritical and Ultra supercritical Technology and Advanced Gas Turbines. Similarly for Hydro power generation, new technologies are greaseless turbine components, generator components, variable speed technologies and double-stage adjustable Pump turbines. For villages/habitations, where grid connectivity is not feasible or not cost effective, off-grid solutions based on stand-alone systems may be taken up for supply of electricity. Where neither standalone systems nor grid connectivity is feasible isolated lighting technologies like solar photovoltaic may be adopted. VII. RIGHT OF WAY CONSERVATION Evacuation of power from large capacity resource head based power system requires large no. of high capacity lines. However, in certain areas the transmission corridor is limited and the use of new technologies is essential to transfer power from power station to load center or to a convenient point to which load center is connected. This approach is needs to be adopted even for small capacity addition and heavy investment in transmission system is initially required keeping in view the generation addition program or future unexploited generation potential in the area. For example, North-eastern region is endowed with vast reserve of hydro and gas potential. It would be essential to harness these in future to meet the energy requirement of the country. As the load growth in the North-eastern region is not expected to be substantial, there shall be huge power surplus which shall be required to be brought to load centers in other regions by laying a large transmission network. However, the power corridor availability is limited in the chicken neck area which restricted lying of large no. of EHV AC/HVDC lines from North eastern region to eastern region. The right of way in this area needs to be utilized judiciously so that no bottlenecks are caused in future. VIII. PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION Enactment of the Electricity Act, 2003 has opened up hitherto constrained electricity market which was characterized by long term PPAs and inability of Distribution Companies and Consumers to have a choice of suppliers. Besides, de-licensing generation and removing controls on

captive generation, the provision regarding availability of non-discriminatory open access in transmission from the very beginning and open access in distribution in a phased manner are important features of the Act. This creates an enabling environment for competition among generators/traders to choose their customers and vice-versa. Access to inter-State transmission system is governed by the regulations of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. The Central Transmission Utility (CTU) is the nodal agency for providing medium term (3 months to 3 years) and long term (12 to 25 years) access that is typically required by a generating station or a trader on its behalf. The nodal agency for grant of short term open access (up to three months) is the Regional Load Dispatch Centre. The nodal agency for providing transmission access to the power exchanges is the National Load Dispatch Centre. IX. DEVELOPMENT OF OVERLAID TRANSMISSION SYSTEM Identification of transmission expansion requirement is done based on power system studies corresponding to the generation expansion and forecasted demand scenario expected. The implementation is worked out keeping in view identification of projects, schemes and transmission elements that should be implemented matching with the generation capacity addition and load growth on yearly basis. A number of 765kV lines and substations have been added and a few more are under-construction. A number of new 765kV lines and substations have been planned for evacuation of bulk power in the range of 3000 6000 MW over longer distances. The Aurangabad - Wardha 400 kV Quad D/C line which is part of the transmission system for evacuation of power from Mundra UMPP has been planned and designed in such a way that this line would be converted into a 1200kV S/C line at a later date. X. DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERLYING NETWORK The basic motto behind the transmission system planning is to develop an overlay EHV supergrid comprising of 765kV and above. This grid should be mainly responsible for the transfer of large block of power from major generating stations to different parts of the country just as national Highway. However, its success largely depends upon the strength and performance of the underlying network whose main job is to draw the power from Supergrid and wheel it up to the consumer end. Therefore, it is necessary that adequate attention is also paid towards development of the underlying network commensurate with the development of the overlaid supergrid. XI. REACTIVE POWER Day-to-day operational data reveals that there is wide variation in system voltage during off-peak to peak condition. This is basically due to the improper reactive power management at the underlying networks which is largely

dependent upon the overlaid EHV network for its VAR requirements. In fact, the operational performance of the underlying network dictates the performance of the overlaid system of 765kV and above which allowable departure from the nominal voltage is limited. While the high voltage of the system endangers the life of the equipment, persistent low voltage limits the power transfer capability of the transmission system, resulting in high losses and overloading of the transmission facility. Therefore, there is an urgent need of better appreciation of proper reactive management through static VAR compensators like the STATCOM have been employed. These quite satisfactorily do the job of absorbing or generating reactive power with a faster time response and come under Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS). This allows an increase in transfer of apparent power through a transmission line, and much better stability by the adjustment of parameters that govern the power system i.e. current, voltage, phase angle, frequency and impedance. XII. OTHER ISSUE : STRINGENT ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS CERC has specified a fixed time schedule for commissioning of Inter State Transmission (ISTS) of different voltage levels ranging from 18 months to 42 months. Transmission projects are planned along with the upcoming generation projects and any delay/mismatch in commissioning of associated evacuation lines may result in bottling up of power. While finalizing the route alignment, emphasis is on avoidance of forest, National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuary etc., however, it is not possible to avoid such areas completely. Forest Clearance is a mandatory requirement for the portion of the line traversing through the forest. Getting Forest Clearance takes considerable time due to the lengthy process and involvement of different levels of officials at State and Central Government level. However, various problems regarding procedural delays at State Govt. level for identification of land of compensatory afforestation and delay in processing the case at various levels can be avoided by processing the forest cases for transmission lines at all the levels with a definite time-frame which calls for proper Inter-ministerial coordination. XIII. FUTURE TRENDS Power density of transmission corridors (MW per meter ROW) is being enhanced by increasing the voltage level. Transmission voltage upto 765kV levels are already in operation. A 800 kV, 6000 MW HVDC system as a part of evacuation of bulk power from North Eastern Region (NER) to Northern Region (NR) over a distance of around 2000 km is under implementation. In addition, increasing the AC voltage level at 1200kV level has been planned. Research work for 1000kV HVDC system has also been commenced. Upgradation of transmission line has resulted in increase of power transfer capacity of the exist transmission corridor with marginal

increase in ROW (from 35m to 37m). Up gradation of HVDC Terminal has been achieved seamlessly without changing of any equipment. That has been achieved with enhanced cooling of transformer and smoothing reactor with meager cost. POWERGRID has designed & developed multi circuit towers (4 Circuits on one tower with twin conductors) inhouse and the same are implemented in many transmission systems, which are passing through forest and ROW congested areas e.g. Kudankulam and RAPP-C transmission system. In order to increase the load ability of lines, development of HSIL technology is gaining momentum. High temperature endurance conductors to increase the current rating are in use for select transmission corridors and urban/metro areas. With electricity market opening up further, more and more need has been felt to utilize the existing assets to the fullest extent as well as regulate the power. This could be possible through use of power electronics in electricity network such as FACTS devices. In order to increase the power density of the corridor, development of 1200kV AC system as next higher AC voltage level has been decided. Integration of Indian Electricity Grid with countries such as Bhutan, Nepal would result in optimization of electricity resources on a large scale and provide additional benefits and opportunities to the buying and selling countries. XIV. CONCLUSION Over the years, the Indian power system has undergone phenomenal expansion resulting in greater complexity in both system operation and system planning. We must continuously evolve strategies to counter challenges that come in the way of objective of evolution of optimal systems with acceptable levels of reliability and security, while keeping an eye on the economics as well. It is hoped that the subject and issues raised in the paper shall be deliberated in detail in this conference and useful recommendations in this regard shall enrich the system planners of the country in overall planning of an efficient transmission system. XV.ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are presently pursuing their Masters degree in the department of Electrical Engineering of VSS University of Technology, Burla, and Odisha and gratefully acknowledged the facilities provided by the department in preparing this paper. XVI. REFERENCES
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