India is getting ready for integration of large-scale variable and intermittent renewable sources so as to ensure the frequency control through AGC (Automatic Generation Control), said Union Power Minister R K Singh here on Tuesday.
The AGC Project has so far made operational 51 GegaWatt of generation capacity in all the five regional grids that would ensure high quality stabilized frequency power to the grid.
“This is a significant milestone in improving the resilience of the Indian Power System manifolds,” said the Union Power Minister while dedicating the AGC project being operated by POSOCO (Power System Operation Cooperation) to the nation.
This AGC project would further help in achieving the government’s ambitious target of 500 GW non-fossil fuel-based generation capacity by 2030, the Minister said.
The AGC is a high-tech energy frequency control system that sends signals to power plants every four seconds to maintain the frequency and reliability of the Power System, the Ministry. Maintaining Energy Frequency is very important to ensure the supply of high-quality power to end consumers, the Ministry said.
“On the country’s march towards achieving the renewable energy capacity of 175 GW in 2022, we have achieved an installed capacity of 150 GW of renewable energy, including large hydro projects. 63 GW of renewable energy capacity are under various phases of installation, which is expected to be completed by next year,” the Minister said.
Further talking about the challenges of the Indian Power System, the Minister said the POSOCO has to brace up for challenges of the future, in our national goal of transition to cleaner energy.
“The dynamics in the Indian Power Sector are multifold, ranging from the changing fuel mix, penetration of renewables, the proliferation of distributed energy resources, and the challenge to deepen system security and resilience,” he said.
“Power sector is transforming. There is a need of balancing grid operations as renewables are evolving as a greater challenge. We have penetration of solar even in the agriculture sector. A substantial part of the consumption will be generated by consumers through renewables. We will see even industries switching to renewables as the tariff of industries is higher than consumers’. We need to come up with a mechanism to balance this all,” he said.