New pact to ensure efficient power management in India

The Dollar Business Bureau In a move to ensure an efficient management of power and increase the efficiency of Indian power sector, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between two key departments. The MoU signed between Earth System Science Organization, India Meteorological Department (ESSO-IMD), of the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Power System Operation Corporation Ltd; (POSOCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, will facilitate ways for better management of power in the country through an optimum use of weather information or weather forecast in the power sector, said an official release. Under the MoU, the weather forecast information provided by the ESSO-MID shall be used by all the Power System Operators in the country for better management of Indian Power System and for carrying out required analysis on the same. While the ESSO-Mid would provide weather warnings, regular weather outlooks (monthly and seasonal), the POSCO will make efforts for economic assessment of impact of weather & climate information on the power distribution. Both the sides have agreed to exchange expertise and support in areas of Weather information and its affect on power distribution system and a regular feed mechanism shall be put in place for continued up-gradation of the services, added the release. The MoU is necessitated by the fact that the energy sector is one important sector that is heavily dependent on the weather conditions and in this regard, proactive steps are required to minimise the possible adverse impacts, added the release. Extreme climatic challenges can have dramatic impact on the power grid of the country and in that case, the long-term production & supply planning, in addition to short and medium term, require climate data and future climate scenarios. So, in view of the risks associated with the climatic conditions on all time scales, an efficient weather forecasting system linked to the power sector is the need of the hour to reduce the uncertainty in supply and demand forecasts in the power sector.    

May 19, 2015 | 6:52 pm IST.