GE’s WAMS solution to secure PGCIL northern grid

GE Power’s Grid Solutions business announced commissioning of world’s largest Wide Area Monitoring System (WAMS) solution to Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) for the Northern Grid.

The project is part of the Unified Real Time Dynamic State Measurement (URTDSM) initiative that entails monitoring and controlling of the electricity supply across the country which will positively impact India’s total population. The project has been executed by GE T&D India listed entity of GE Power’s Grid Solution business in India.

This first stage will enable PGCIL to monitor power flow across 110 substations in the Northern Grid (NR) and respond to fluctuations within a fraction of a second. This will be critical in addressing power demand-supply imbalances and ensuring grid stability benefitting from the integration of renewable energy with the grid.

The northern grid covers nine control centers, namely Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh.

Commenting on the development, Sunil Wadhwa, MD, GE T&D India and Leader of GE Power’s Grid Solution business in South Asia said, “The commissioning of WAMS technology of this scale and size is unparalleled in the history of power transmission in India. This will prove to be an important milestone in ensuring supply of uninterrupted, 24X7 high-quality power supply and integration of renewable energy with the country’s electrical grid.”

When fully commissioned, this new WAMS solution will be the world’s largest comprising 1,184 Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and 34 control centers across India, 350 substations in the national grid.

Part of GE Power’s Digital Energy portfolio, this solution obtains input data 25 times per second from all the PMUs installed (as compared to conventional SCADA, sampling once in nearly 5 seconds), with real time views on geographic displays, analytical applications and the capacity to store 500 TB of data. Moreover, it will also fully secure the grid from any cyber security threat, incorporating the latest firewall policies.

The development and testing of the new software and substation devices was undertaken by GE teams from India, the UK and USA supported by PGCIL teams for a duration of two years.

On the commissioning of the project, Reinaldo Garcia, Global Leader of GE Power’s Grid Solution business said, “Our dedicated teams across the business are committed to successfully deliver on a project of this magnitude. Only GE can replicate this impressive solution for customers around the globe.”