Indian power transmission system fairly robust: GE Energy

Global conglomerate GE has said the Indian power transmission system is quite robust compared to many developed nations, and “political will” is needed to reinforce discipline to avoid situations like the recent grid failure.

GE Energy, part of the US-based multinational giant, said “political will” was required to ensure that all the parties sharing the power grids follow certain rules.

“It is important that we do recognise that. All said and done, I think we in India do have a fairly, relatively speaking, strong and robust transmission system,” GE Energy’s India Region President & CEO Banmali Agrawala told PTI.

The country’s central transmission system is large and substantial while the “failures in that system has been minimal”, he said in an interview here.

“At one level, it is a good system especially when you compare with many other systems around the world, even the developed places.

“I think, we have a fairly robust (transmission) system,” Agrawala noted.

He stressed, however, that those who share the power transmission grids need to follow the rules.

“You will need to have the political will to make sure that the rules around sharing a resource like the grid are followed by all,” Agrawala said.

Though the exact reason for the massive failure of three grids last week are yet to be ascertained, there are concerns that overdrawing by some States could have led to the collapse.

“If the consequences of not following the rules are not harsh enough, then you tend to look at those rules with a little bit of leniency. If the consequences were severe, then one follows the rules strictly,” Agrawala noted.

Considered to be one of the largest failures in the world, three power grids, serving the Northern, Eastern and North Eastern regions, tripped on July 31 affecting more than half of country’s population. The incident took place within a day of another failure of the Northern Grid early on July 30.

In India, GE Energy has power and water, oil and gas, and energy management businesses.

GE offers a suite of smarter grid solutions to increase energy productivity and power reliability, among others.

According to Agrawala, India needs to focus on reliability of the system — in terms of providing electricity supply.

“When we look at the choices made when it comes to power generation, I think affordability somewhere gains number one criteria and then reliability follows to the extent that due to certain notions of un-affordability...” he pointed out.

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