Platform presently hosts more than 50 solutions from over 30 technology partners
The Virtual Smart Grid Knowledge Center (Virtual SGKC) and Innovation Park, launched on 8 Mar 2022, will be critical in accelerating the pace of adoption of smart grid technologies that will help DISCOMs to become smarter and agile to be at par with latest technological advancements worldwide, said Veena Reddy, Mission Director, USAID – India.
Reddy highlighted that the USAID, which was technically involved in setting up the Virtual SGKC, and Ministry of Power (MOP) have jointly rolled out several initiatives on distribution sector reforms, and institution capacity building of power sector personnel to help improve efficiencies.
She enumerated on the longstanding bilateral energy partnership between India and US and its continuous focus on energy security and innovation.
The Virtual SGKC has been conceptualised and developed by POWERGRID with support from the Ministry of Power and technical assistance from USAID. The platform co-exists with the physical setup and provides remote access to all existing SGKC offerings and more.
A Technology Incubation Hub is planned at Virtual SGKC campus, located within the POWERGRID.
The SGKC is for demonstration and advancement of frontier smart grid technologies and aims to be one of the leading Centers of Excellence globally to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and research in smart grid technologies and create capacities in the power distribution sector.
The platform presently hosts more than 50 solutions from over 30 technology partners across 8 thematic areas spanning across new and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, IOT, etc.
The solutions, which are physically present at SGKC premises at Manesar, are also hosted on this platform. This includes solutions such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), smart homes, microgrids, Outage Management System (OMS), etc.
Power Minister R.K. Singh congratulated PGCIL and USAID for setting up the Virtual SGKC.
He pointed out that the world is changing in a rapid phase in the energy sector.
India, he explained, is way ahead in the energy transition and the rate of implementation of renewable energy capacity in the country is way faster compared to any other countries around the world.
The Minister has asked all the distribution and transmission companies to visit the SGKC both physically and virtually for utilizing the technology. He said that the government will provide aid to give assistance to the engineers and innovators with bright ideas in the smart system technology. fiinews.com
