Institutional capacity building of the load despatch centres in India

In India there are close to forty (40) Load Despatch Centres (control centres) for power system and electricity market operation. In order to assess capabilities of these Load Despatch Centres (LDCs), a nationwide survey was conducted with the help of a questionnaire. This paper draws inferences from the findings of the survey. It emphasizes that institutional capacity building of the LDCs in India is highly relevant in view of the ongoing reforms and restructuring, increasing vulnerabilities of the interconnected grid, rapid growth in the interconnection size, generation capacity addition, equipment/human failure, cyber attacks, environmental threats and fast changing regulatory framework in India. The paper argues that the effective coordination amongst the system operators can come by establishing functional and financial autonomy of the LDCs as well as by strengthening the capabilities of the human resource working in the LDC.

The paper provides an overview of the recent initiatives being taken by the policy makers, regulators and the utilities in India for institutional capacity building of the LDCs. Most significant amongst these are the recommendations of the committee constituted by the Union Ministry of Power (MoP), Government of India (GoI) on manpower, certification, and incentives for system operation and ring fencing of LDCs; the report of the various task forces set up by the MoP for implementation of the recommendation of the committee; the Regulations on fees and charges of the LDCs notified by the Electricity Regulatory Commission; the formation of Forum of Load Despatchers (FOLD); the creation of ISO structure for operation of the National and Regional LDCs; and the programme for training and certification of power system operators in India being undertaken. The paper opines that the recent initiatives are significant as they would help in improving the awareness of the overall status of the interconnected power system in India and coordination amongst the System Operators. It argues that institutional capacity building of the LDCs in India would be instrumental in synergizing the benefits of the various reform initiatives in the sector. The paper also highlights the various issues being faced in the implementation of the various initiatives and provides a future outlook.