GE Power’s Grid Solutions business has commissioned the first phase of the grid-stabilization system, Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS), for Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL).
Image: Officials from GE among others. Photo: courtesy of General Electric.
The project, which is executed by GE T&D India, is part of the Unified Real Time Dynamic State Measurement (URTDSM) initiative, which involves monitoring and controlling of the electricity supply across the country.
The work is a part of $52.2m contract awarded to GE T&D in January 2014 to install WAMS across all five regional grids of north, south, east, west and northeast India.
With completion of the first leg of the project, PGCIL will be able to monitor power flow across 110 substations in the Northern Grid (NR) and respond to fluctuations within a fraction of a second., GE said.
GE Power chief digital officer Steven Martin said: “It’s exciting to see PGCIL harnessing the benefits of real-time data monitoring, improved decision making, and stronger cyber protection in order to ensure a steady, resilient power supply.”
The NR covers nine control centers including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh.
GE said that the NR will be fully secured with latest firewall policies to o address potential cyber security threat.
Expected to be world’s largest of its kind upon completion, the WAMS system is aimed at addressing power demand-supply imbalances and ensures grid stability by allows integration of renewable energy with the grid.
Upon fully commissioning, the WAMS solution will comprise 1,184 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and 34 control centers across India, and 350 substations in the national grid.
GE T&D India managing director Sunil Wadhwa said: “The commissioning of the Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS) technology of this scale and size is unparalleled in the history of power transmission in India.
“This will prove to be an important milestone in ensuring supply of uninterrupted, 24X7 high-quality power supply and integration of renewable energy with the country’s electrical grid.”
GE’s teams from India, the UK and US have performed the development and testing work for the new software and substation devices with support from PGCIL teams over two-year period.