In a landmark move, India’s first renewable energy based smart Mini-Grid System was officially kicked off at TERI Retreat in Gurgaon. India’s Minister of New & Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Minister of Power, Shri Sushilkumar Shinde were present at the event to mark the historical moment in India’s energy history. Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy Shri Deepak Gupta and Director General, TERI Dr. R.K. Pachauri were also present on the occasion.

India with its dramatically expanding market is in need of tapping all possible sources to meet with the growing power needs. According to Dr. Abdullah the country should focus on producing the energy and related technologies indigenously.

In a press release, the ministry spokespersons revealed that the Solar Energy center under the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy system was actively involved in the development of Mini-Grid system. The ministry disbursed a hefty amount of money for the implementation of the project.

The project was sanctioned to TERI under the aegis of Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APPCDC) in March, 2009. The smart mini grid has been deployed at TERI Retreat building in which 3.2 kW wind generator, 10.5 kW solar PV power, 1 kW thin film, 2 kW SPV systems, 100kW biomass gasifier and diesel generator have been integrated to demonstrate optimal evacuation of renewable power, the ministry spokesperson noted.

A Smart Mini-Grid (SMG), or Micro-Grid, is an intelligent electricity distribution network, operating at or below 11 KV, where the energy demand is effectively and intelligently managed by diverse range of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as solar PV, micro-hydro power plants, wind turbines, biomass, small conventional generators such as diesel gensets etc in combination with each other through smart control techniques. In a statement Shinde maintained that smart mini-grids will be very useful for stand-alone projects in villages and inaccessible areas. He said that renewable energy is important as it reaches unreachable areas. He said

In the release, the ministry expressed its hope that wide scale adoption of SMG system will not only foster the effective inter-connection and utilization of multiple renewable energy resources but would also help in advancing access to energy to the last mile in the most optimum way by improving the efficiency of the overall system.