The Indian government has announced that it has commissioned a first of its kind Renewable Energy Based Smart Mini-Grid System at TERI Retreat in Gurgaon, India

Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy said that the country must have strong safeguards so that it gets the best technology and also develops it indigenously.

The newly built Smart Mini-Grid (SMG), or Micro-Grid will act as an intelligent electricity distribution network, which will initially operate 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. 

This new grid is a great help in large commercial and industrial complexes, hospitals, shopping malls/ complexes, apartments, residential complexes, educational institutions, remote un-electrified as well as electrified locations to ensure maximum flexibility, reliability and safety.

“Renewable energy is important as it reaches unreachable areas,” said Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister of Power. He said that smart mini-grids would be very useful for stand-alone projects in villages and inaccessible areas.

Apart from serving these great purposes , the smart grid utilises the advanced sensing, communication and control technologies to generate and transmit power and also distribute and utilize electricity in a more intelligent and effective manner.

This application will not only promote the effective inter-connection and utilization of multiple renewable energy resources but will also help in advancing access to energy to the last mile in these most optimum way by improving the efficiency of the overall system.

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