All State Despatch Centres of Electricity Grid expected to have Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System by the year 2026: Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy – EQ

The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy has informed Rajya Sabha that GRID-INDIA, a PSU under the Ministry of Power, monitors the real time parameters from various Sub-stations and Generating stations at National and Regional Load Despatch Centres (NLDC / RLDCs) through the well-established Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) / Energy Management Systems (EMS) for monitoring of power system by State Load Despatch Centres (SLDCs) and RLDCs. Regular upgradation of these systems is being done.

Further, Regulation 43(4) of the Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Construction of Electrical Plants and Electric Lines) Regulations, 2022 specifies the centralized remote monitoring and operation of substations including the deployment of SCADA systems.

The Minister informed that SCADA systems at various SLDCs are under process of replacement/upgradation which is expected to be completed by 2026.

The Minister further informed that steps taken by Government for predictive maintenance techniques using AI/ML algorithms, cyber security measures, and robots and drones for construction and inspection of transmission assets are as under:

All grid substations use sensors for measuring various parameters of power system asset viz., oil temperature, winding temperature, Dissolved Gas analysis of a transformer, contact resistance of Circuit breakers etc. These parameters are further analyzed with computer aided tools for predictive maintenance.

Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has issued Guidelines for Cyber security in Power Sector in October 2021 leading to development and implementation of Cyber Security measures.

A Computer Security Incident Response Team for Power sector (CSIRT-Power) under guidance of CERT-In has been setup at CEA, to coordinate and support the response to cyber security incidents and hand-hold utilities for preventing, detecting, handling, and responding to cyber security incidents.

Regulation 87 of the Central Electricity Authority (Technical Standards for Construction of Electrical Plants and Electric Lines) Regulations, 2022 specifies the provision for use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for construction and inspection of transmission assets in difficult and inaccessible terrains.

In order to improve efficiency of substations in the country and the overall electric transmission system, CEA has brought out the manual on “Transmission planning criterion” in March 2023 for planning Transmission and Substations.

This information has been given by the Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy Shri R. K. Singh, in a written reply to a question, in Rajya Sabha on August 8, 2023.