USAID Holds First-of-its-kind Workshop on Synchronous Condensers in India
The increasing share of renewable energy (RE) in the grid will pose issues for grid stability that India will have to address. Countries with RE capacities of over 20% have deployed synchronous condensers, or syncons, for system inertia improvement and system strengthening.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through its South Asia Regional Energy Partnership (SAREP) program, has developed an approach for syncon implementation in India. The program held a day-long brainstorming workshop on Deployment of Synchronous Condensers in India at the Northern Regional Power Committee (NRPC) office in New Delhi on May 26. This workshop was the first to be held on this subject in India.
The key stakeholders present at the workshop – including representatives from NRPC, GRID India, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Central Electricity Regulatory Authority, and other public and private stakeholders – deliberated on the challenges of increased RE in the power system, and the role of syncons as a possible solution.
VK Singh, Member Secretary, NRPC, set the ball rolling with his welcome address, and opened the forum. Setting the context after him, S R Narasimhan, CMD, GRID-India, said that India has added a significant amount of renewables in its very fast. However, queue management is very important and that is something system operators in India and around the world are looking at improving. He added that issues such as system strength, short circuit ratio, inertia, etc. have become very important as the renewable penetration levels increase.
Ghanshyam Prasad, Chairperson, CEA, who delivered the special address, said that India has been using syncons much ahead of the rest of the world and will continue to do so as the need arises. However, the final outcome desired is provision of quality electricity supply, and he suggested a focus on a combination of solutions to achieve the same. He added that these solutions need to guided by international experience, but be tailor-made for Indian systems.
He highlighted issues that need to be addressed such as compensation, transmission network space, etc.
At the event, Dhananjay Kumar Chaturvedi, formerly from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), and Technical Expert, SAREP, stressed on how syncons could be way to deal with issues such as short circuit support, system inertia, etc.
SK Soonee, former CMD of the erstwhile Power System Operation Corporation of India (POSOCO), and Technical Expert, SAREP, provided historical context to of power systems in India. He said that syncons had been around in the 70s-80s as well, and hence the current stress was not a new development but a kind of renaissance for the technology. He also cited some recent instances of disruption in power supply, where syncons could have helped stabilize the situation.
These addresses were followed by presentations from technology service providers (TSPs) such as GE, and Siemens Energy, Germany. The post-lunch session provided insights by international experts who joined virtually. Dr Luis Rouco Professor, Electric Power Systems, IIT Comillas, Spain, delivered a presentation on ‘How Synchronous Condenser could be beneficial to Renewable Rich Network?’ and Fabian Spescha, Grid Connection Manager, Total Eren, spoke from his experience as a system operator as part of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
In the free-flowing discussions that followed, various participants such as A K Rajput, Member (Power System), CEA, and Awdhesh Kumar Yadav, Chief (Engineering), CERC, and others from public and private stakeholder organizations, expressed their thoughts, concerns, and exchanged ideas.
In her closing remarks, Monali Zeya Hazra, Senior Clean Energy Specialist, USAID India, thanked all those who joined. She supported the idea of regional consultations raised during the discussions and added that the team would come back to the stakeholders with specific ways on means of moving forward on this important subject.
