Safe Energy Supply Industry is growing in India – and so is the demand for energy. Because India’s outdated infrastructure is unable to keep pace with this demand, power outages are not uncommon. As the “Stabiliz-Energy” project shows, help is on the way. Under the leadership of fortiss, European and Indian partners have installed a 400V, low-voltage distribution network on the campus of Amrita University in Kerala. This micro grid, consisting of 13 nodes, is not only reliable and reconfigures itself in the case of an outage. Part of the energy is generated from renewable sources.
The key to the grid is the design of the distribution network, a robust communications infrastructure and intelligent meters, which allow monitoring of all of the relevant data points. The software solution developed by fortiss operates decentrally under a similarly decentralized architecture concept: The fortiss experts implemented the same software architecture at different levels, from the electricity meters and aggregators, to the control center, allowing data from different sources to be processed, prepared and integrated.
If a node goes down, other nodes in the network assume responsibility for the tasks. Another advantage is that each of the 13 nodes can be individually monitored and managed, either centrally or individually, with a mobile application.
Simulation
A unique feature of this system is the enhanced simulation environment that was adapted to the local geography. With this tool, engineers can test various scenarios such as power and voltage fluctuations, network damage or electricity theft, then transfer corresponding solutions to the field installation.
If one of the lines fails for instance, the distribution network not only detects the problem, but reconfigures itself by activating alternative connections between the nodes. That ensures that power is supplied around-the-clock.
The “Stabile Energy” project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and supported through the INNO INDIGO initiative, the latter which aims to promote scientific cooperation between India and Europe and involve industry partners in research projects.