MORGAN HILL, CALIF., Aug. 5, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The OpenADR Alliance today announced a strategic relationship with the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF), a public private partnership initiative India's Ministry of Power (MoP) created to accelerate the development of smart grid technologies in the Indian power sector. The two organizations will work together to facilitate the adoption of Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR)in India, helping utilities in the country better maintain grid reliability, while providing customers with demand response-enabled products delivering enhanced energy efficiency.
Today, India operates the world's largest synchronous grids covering 3.28 million SqKM, 250 GW connected capacity and about 200 million consumers. However 40% of the population has no access to electricity and per capita consumption of electricity in India is one-fourth of world average. The country is seeing fragmented and independent Smart Grid endeavors by the national (Central) and local (State) governments, public-private collaborations, and private organizations, at different levels of maturity. Nationally, the Indian Ministry of Power (MOP) is working toward major power sector reform, which includes revolutionizing the grid with bi-directional information exchange. For the systemic growth of the Smart Grid in the country, the India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) and India Smart Grid Task Force (ISGTF) were set up under the aegis of the Ministry of Power. In 2013 Ministry of Power released Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India with the goal of transforming the entire Indian power system to smart grids over the next 15 years.
Demand response as a key demand-side management strategy provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional supply-side solutions to address growing electricity demands during times of peak load or when prices are high. [1]Currently, 14 Smart Grid pilot projects are under implementation by different state distribution utilities. The peak-load management and advanced metering infrastructure will be implemented most of these pilot projects. With partnership with ISGF, OpenADR can be evaluated for applications within the Indian context and will play a key role in reducing the cost of technology enablement and aid with the interoperability and cyber-security.
"This partnership will help create a platform for public and private stakeholder members, research institutions and power utilities to exchange ideas and information on smart grids and develop use case scenarios for clean energy access in India," said Rish Ghatikar, deputy leader for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and board member of the OpenADR Alliance.
"Working with the OpenADR Alliance will help bring together experts from regulation, policy, and the corporate sector to build support for smart grid policies," said ISGF President & CEO, Reji Kumar Pillai. "Our main objective is to help the Indian power sector deploy smart grid technologies in an efficient, cost effective, innovative and scalable manner with enabling technologies like OpenADR."
OpenADR and ISGF will make recommendations to the government, regulators, utilities and consumers by conducting research on the capabilities of smart grids in the Indian context through case studies, cost-benefit analysis, study of technical advancements in renewable energy sources and other ancillary activities.
About ISGF
ISGF was set up in 2010 to provide a mechanism through which academia, industry, utilities and other stakeholders could participate in the development of Indian smart grid systems and provide relevant inputs to the government's decision-making. ISGF has over 100 members covering ministries, government institutions, regulators, utilities and private companies from the industry, non-profit organizations, educational and research entities and students from renowned institutions. Mandate of ISGF is to advise government on policies and programs for promotion of Smart Grids in India, work with national and international agencies in standards development and to help utilities, regulators and the Industry in technology selection, training and capacity building.
About the OpenADR Alliance
The OpenADR Alliance fosters the development, adoption, and compliance of the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) standard through collaboration, education, training, testing, and certification. The OpenADR Alliance is open to all interested stakeholders interested in accelerating the adoption of the OpenADR standard for price- and reliability-based demand response. More information can be obtained at http://www.openadr.org/
[1]Reference: Ghatikar G., V. Ganti, and C. Basu; Expanding Buildings-to-Grid (B2G) Objectives in India. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California Berkeley. 2013. LBNL-6369E (http://eetd.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/lbnl-6369e.pdf)