Standardisation of Data and Technology for Smart Grid

Thanks in part to the government stimulus money with mandated time limits, and other "green" incentives, the implementations of facility BMS, EMS, GIS, DGPS Survey for data and smart meter projects are proceeding full speed ahead and damn any standards that get in the way.

There are many diverse aspects to the smart grid but one of the most intriguing is the application of intelligence to the transmission and distribution grid itself, all the way from the long distance transmission lines, to the local substations, distribution lines and ultimately the (smart) meters.  The upgrade of the grid is not so much in the transmission and distribution equipment itself which but rather in the overlaying of an intelligent network that aggregates data from across the grid to enable the utilities to better manage the transmission and distribution functions, localize and isolate faults and integrate renewable power sources while preserving the stability and reliability of the grid.

Data is another area of serious concern.Utilities have either not maintained this data and/ or were not following standards for the maintenance of engineering records. They now look at field surveyors to provide the accurate engg. records (in fact better than elec. engg could do). Surveyors have their own concepts of accuracy and correctness. GIS and GPS technology is applied in a very fashionable /casual way without understanding the business requirements and processes. Most of these initiatives are tailormade to consume a particular product and heavily influenced by the vendors. Once initiated in one country these projects are replicated blindly elsewhere and spread like a disease. Ex. a classic case of vendor agent driven misguided utilities in some Gulf countries: few utilities started countrywide geophysical survey  (GPR and cable tracing) of  buried utilities to map their electrical network for GIS database updation and pilot failed. No lessons learned. Then they went ahead with another project for DGPS survey  (20 cm accuracy) of utilities in open trench condition to create the GIS database of utility network.  An exercise that guarantees CM level accuracy. How will you accommodate this level of accuracy in a complex network of cables in an urban environment? What is the use of such a high accuracy where everyone feels the existing procedure of as-built preparation is more than enough, if followed  properly ? Practice of precision surveys is neither required nor sustainable for any utility where hundreds of changes occur on daily basis. An standardized work flow for the creation of as-built, its submission and entry into GIS would be enough to maintain the sanctity of the engineering records and serve the purpose of O&M staff.

This same issue of interoperability will be critical to the smart grid as it moves out of the realm of isolated pilot programs and demonstration projects to a more ubiquitous presence. As in the case of cellular networks (or any networks), there are going to be a wide variety of equipment providers involved in the smart grid.  Within an individual service area, the utility may choose to work with multiple vendors in order to mitigate both technical and commercial risk.  In order to maximize the value of the smart grid, it will be necessary to enable the utilities to have a homogeneous view of this heterogeneous network.

Standardization of business processes is more important than the technology implementation to justify the RoI. Vendors should never dictate the way things should move. Now we see a lot of RFPs and projects where you can easily see that "Failure " is in-built in the form of vague SoW, no standards for data  and technology and irrational timelines. Technology should be used to facilitate the implementation in a phased manner and thus the standards will be defined by the experts and not by the agents of vendors who are interested only in selling their products.

R-APDRP: GIS & Utilities Business Process Re-engineering

Massive Aggregate Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses have long crippled the financial viability of State Distribution Companies. To address this problem a targeted funding mechanism was introduced for the first time in 2003 in the form of the Accelerated Power Development Reforms Programme (APDRP). Its key objectives were to reduce AT&C losses, improve customer satisfaction as well as financial viability of the SDCs, adopt a systems approach and introduce greater transparency.Unfortunately, the benefits under the first APDRP were not linked to well defined objecives, Quality checks, demonstrable performance and it failed glaringly to achieve its goals. In several cases, funds under the first APDRP were utilised without taking cognisance of the need to reduce AT&C losses. To illustrate, in the state of Bihar, significant amounts of money received under the first APDRP were spent on sophisticated equipment for substations, while very little money was spent on procuring meters to measure actual consumption of electricity. In fact, AT&C losses increased in Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh under the first APDRP. It was in this backdrop that the Restructured APDRP (R-APDRP) was conceived in September 2008.


R-APDRP seeks to commence with tackling the problem of un-metered supply and lack of proper data acquisition systems, followed by system up-gradation and modernisation of equipment. Proposals under R-APDRP will be considered in two phases. In the first phase, proposals for establishing reliable and automated systems for the sustained collection of accurate baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting/auditing and IT-based consumer service centres will be considered for funding. In the second phase, proposals for strengthening/upgradation of power distribution will be considered.
Nowdays, We face obvious questions. For ex. how GIS is going to help in solving the problems of "Utilities" which are facing the challenges of reducing the AT&C losses and incresing the profits? How R-APDRP is different from APDRP in terms of implementation?  It seems that just changing the funding mechanism and implementing a GIS will not result in any reengineering and improvement in the performance and profit. Not implementing a GIS will not preclude effective reengineering either. What the GIS can do are:

• Help identify critical information needed for the business process  and decision making (turning data into information)
• Help to rethink organizational issues by bringing to light low value organizational boundary interfaces
• Facilitate process improvement steps by organizing all geographic and facility information in one common data source
• Enable new creative thinking which could lead to dramatic improvements in the policy implmentations and monitoring the performance of the network and utilty staff as well

Assuming that the GIS is open and accessible to all users within the business unit, the GIS will link the customer directly to the product delivery system. In the past, the billing and customer systems probably have not been integrated into the delivery system data. With the GIS, this is changed. Thus rather than looking at process reengineering of a billing or customer system or an engineering system, it becomes possible to look at reengineering a retail electric business system (the broader view). As stated before, nearly all aspects of the retail electric business, from marketing to sales to collection of bad revenue involve a customer base that is spatial. The benefit of reengineering is to dramatically improve several dimensions in the business process, namely:

• Reduction of gaps in the consumer billing data & the revenue realisation
• Cycle Time - the life cycle measured in elapsed time from the beginning of the process to the end.
• Cost - the total cost to maintain the system
• Service - the value of the relationship of the customer to the provider of the product or service.

Cost will be a major factor after the project completion for maintaining the currency of the data and maintenance. The biggest obstacle to reengineering may be in the attitude that improvement in the cycle time dimension involves a degradation in one of the other dimensions.

Education & System of Education

Nowadays everyone is talking about the biggest bollywood blockbuster movie of this season. Its a basically satire on our education system. Some people relate it with the higher education system in India with IITs at the summit.

Purpose of Education

Before education one is ignorant, after the education one is supposed to be wise, responsible,  high self-esteem and mature. If you have used the word education thinking its is same as literacy, then the above statement will be no more valid. Before literacy one is an ignorant, after that one is a literate ignorant who cant think beyond money.

If we look into the education system, its almost near perfect. But the purpose of this system is not being solved because it is unknown to all, teachers parents and students alike. Subjects are mere chapters to be mugged up to crack the exams just to show the superiority over other students. And everyone feels happy and proud about it. 

What I can't understand is that is the Education system is a failure or are the students and parents at fault for not making the use of the system in a proper manner?

 Pre-Schools/Schools:

• To learn basic knowledge about language, scinece and culture
  
• To becomes responsible citizen to the Nation and to the World at Large.
• To become a good human being and serve the soceity to the best of his/her abilities.
• To respect and love others and your environment and live in Harmony.

Colleges:

• To use the knowledge gained in a innovative and productive way so as to alleviate all or at least most of the problems that mankind is facing.

Professional Institutes/Research Institute:

• To be innovative, create new knowledge...have new vision and mission which will enhance the quality of Life of Mankind in general.
• To search and make an attempt to know more about the Universe at large, who we are ..our latent potentials..and what are our objective..or purpose in Life. Using Science to the extent possible.....No Religion of any kind.. Spiritualism devoid of any Religion is OK.

Some Facts:

Even after the 2008 addition of numerous IITs, we still have only 15,500 seats for undergrad studies in IITs. Compare that with just one state in South India, AP. AP has nearly 600 private engineering colleges today. I had done some back of envelope calculations sometimes back adding up private engineering seats of KA, AP, TN and MH, the four top states producing engineering graduates in India. It was a whopping 600,000 undergrad Engineering seats just from these four states. If you add up other states, like TN, I am fairly certain that India has a million engineering undergrad seats today. Majority of these are producing substandard graduates who are not readily 'employable'. I know the pain as I have done plenty of interviews over the years.

Elitism is good, it sets standards and it allows others to emulate.

India still has a long way to go to even get 100 colleges at world class level. Everything that counts can not be counted and reflected in the reports. IITs are the only brand presentable and recognised outside India and envied most back home. IT boom happened in India because of these so-called unpatriotic IITians. At present whatever little respect India has in the western world is mainly due to its contributions and achievements in the fields related to IT sector. We have to improve the infrastructure, including the quality of faculties and even that of Heads and Vice-Chancellors. Most of the money being spent for establishing new Institutions should actually go to existing Institutions to improve the working conditions and quality of the teachers and Scientists. Other wise, the country would drag on in a similar way as it did on the past boasting about numbers. 

I am happy to know that atleast some portion of my Tax money is being utilised to nurture such intellectuals otherwise that would also have been utilised to fund some politicians' foreign account . And I believe most of the Tax-payers are ready to get their funds utilised the former way. I must not forget to tell that most of the IITans and IIMites are not so called book-warmish otherwise they would not have survived the heat (Please Note : Most of the great business leaders are from IIT and IIM which cannot be denied).

Read more on higher education:
http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/04/30/the-indian-education-system-part-1/
Read all the 10 parts
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/07/04/policy-brief-on-higher-education-in-india/
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/06/09/mr-kapil-sibal-abolish-the-human-resources-development-ministry/
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/06/05/education-and-corruption/
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/05/31/lynching-is-too-good-for-them/