SMART IMPERATIVES FOR LARGE SCALE INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY IN INDIA

Abstract

India is fast becoming an attractive market for Renewable Energy (RE) investments due to a favourable policy environment. As a result, the country’s RE sector has registered significant growth in last few years led by wind with reasonable contributions from biomass, small hydro and solar energy. However, due to its variable and uncertain nature, integration of large scale Renewable Energy Sources (RES) particularly wind and solar into the grid is likely to be a cause of concern for all stakeholders. The key to successful integration of large scale RE into the grid is the ability to control its generation and transmission. In this context, Smart Grids offer high level of control and responsiveness to varying grid conditions, rectifying grid disturbances, active power control and frequency regulation, reactive power control and voltage regulation. While the addition of smart grid into the system will help in RE integration, it brings new players, tools, technologies and procedures, which also need to be considered in designing solutions. The focus of this paper is to identify the key issues faced in large scale integration of RES into the grid and provide suggestions to manage these issues in the short and long-term identifying the role smart grid can play.