A medium-scale town of 1,2 million inhabitants, the city of Puducherry is suffering from rapid urban population growth (almost 3% per year between 2001 and 2011). Puducherry faces increasing difficulties to provide electricity to its population and ensure reliability of the network. Although the electrification process of Puducherry is well above India’s national average (78,7% of India’s population have access to electricity), 31% of the electricity is lost in transmission and distribution lines. The electricity provision system is inefficient due to ageing and overloaded infrastructures. This results in unreliable delivery and regular power shortfalls in many areas; frequent metering errors due to manual reading of old metering systems and inefficiencies in energy accounting and billing, resulting in revenue losses.

In 2013, the Electricity Department of Puducherry, in partnership with the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) and a consortium of 50 energy and IT companies, implemented a SMART grid pilot project to showcase the feasibility of digital grids, to later on scale-it up city-wide. It aimed at implementing all features of digital grids, including:

• System of Advanced Metering Infrastructure. To measure consumption of end-users which are predominantly domestic households, but also commercial, agriculture, street lighting, industrial, etc. 1,400 SMART meters were installed in the first phase of the pilot, sending real-time data to a central control room. The scale-up phase of the project started in July 2016, and 34,000 domestic and 1,640 industrial additional SMART meters should be installed by the beginning of 2017.
  
• Peak load management solution. To assist consumers to reduce their overall electric demand, helping them decide when to use their electricity; avoiding high peaks and associated high tariffs. Pending on the regulator’s approval, it is foreseen that consumers will be informed of their bill thanks to messages to their mobile phone, so they can decide to switch off non-essential equipment.
  
• Power quality management system to ensure stability and balance.
  
• Outage management system is a preventive maintenance solution that enables utilities to have visibility in the health of distribution infrastructure; to alert the control room of a malfunction; to manage scheduled and unscheduled outages; and to inform consumers.
  
• Distribution management system to monitor consumption in real-time.
  
• Integration of renewable energy and distributed power generation. The pilot tested a grid-interactive rooftop solar photovoltaic systems.
  
• Energy storage systems to ensure stability of the grid during contingencies.
  
• Automation of street lighting systems.
  
• Electrical vehicles.
  

Although the Puducherry pilot project was implemented at a small scale, and results will be visible once the project is scaled-up, the city power utility expects several benefits, including: increased management efficiency (possibility to remotely proceed with power connections and disconnections); enhanced reliability of the electricity network (less interruptions and quicker restoration) and consumers are better informed about their consumption. In addition, the Puducherry Electricity Department envisages an important reduction in distribution losses from 31% percent to 10%, as well as increased revenue and reduced expenses with a tariff collection efficiency improvement from 90 percent to 98 percent. The resultant benefit is estimated at $ 2.5 million USD annually.

The utility and government wishing to implement a successful SMART grid project must be sure:

• To choose a solution adapted to the local context. In the Puducherry pilot for instance, a functionality for electric vehicles was foreseen, however the project was quickly abandoned as it did not correspond to the local needs and capabilities.
  
• To choose a sustainable business model and financing model. In the Puducherry context, a MoU was signed between the Electricity Department of Puducherry and the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), where each institution was responsible for the financing of 50% of the project. Initially, the project planned to be implemented in 1,400 households and then scaled-up to 87,000 households. However, the national utility, gave up on the scale-up phase in 2013, and only in July 2016 did the government of Puducherry find another investor, the Chinese company Dong Fang Electronics Corporation, to scale-up the initial pilot project at 34,000 households.
  

To know more about the project :

• http://www.kalkitech.com/wp-content/files/CS_%20Enabling%20the%20SMART%20Grid%20in%20India-Puducherry%20Pilot%20Project.pdf
• http://www.metering.com/india-puducherry-SMART-grid-pilot-to-be-expanded-to-87000-meters/
• https://apps.powergridindia.com/SMARTgrid/Default.aspx
• http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/ped-grapples-with-ageing-cables-everincreasing-power-load/article8684857.ece
• https://www.metering.com/mou-signed-for-SMART-grid-pilot-in-india/
• http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/SMART-grid-project-back-on-track/article8036407.ece