In COP26 summit in Glasgow, India’s PM announced ambitious goals in the fight against Climate change. These are called Panchamrit:

• Build non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
• Meet 50% of energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
• Reduce total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes till 2030.
• Reduce carbon intensity of economy by less than 45% by 2030.
• Achieve Net Zero by 2070.

Central and State governments are also taking several initiatives towards meeting these targets. As more renewable energy capacity gets injection into the grid, it poses following key challenges for local distribution companies like MSEDCL as well as to direct consumers:

• Intermittency management – Unlike fossil energy sources like Coal and gas, typically all renewable energy sources are inherently intermittent in nature and provide energy only during certain period of time (e. g. Daily or seasonally based on availability of sunshine, wind and water)
• Distributed generation – As solar and wind generation become ubiquitous, energy consumers also become energy producers. Such transition from “customer” to “Prosumer” need a bi-directional flow of energy
• Demand side management – As renewable generation gets expanded, the traditional approach of “Generation following demand” gives way to “Demand following generation”. This means new grid systems need to be able to alter their consumption based on energy availability. This necessitates “Demand Side Management” techniques to be followed by all consumers

These challenges need collaborative solutions where all stake holders viz Generation companies, Distribution companies, consumers, developers, regulators finance companies etc. work together. However, a big onus is on consumers to support utility companies in this endeavor. As more renewable energy capacity gets injected into the grid, consumers also need to ascertain stability, reliability, and resilience of electricity grid. Moreover, fossil energy will get more expensive as the time goes. 

All the above challenges can be addressed by installing “Smart RE Microgrid.”