A Two days International Conference on “Evolving Trends in Intelligent Management of the Future Grid” was organised by Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA) in association with IEEE and supported by Ministry of Power, Govt. of India during 23rd - 24th January 2017 at  India Expo Mart, Greater Noida.

The objective of this conference was to bring exhibitors and senior officials from Ministry of Power, State Utilities, DISCOMS, IESA, India IOT Panel and TERI under one common platform, to discuss global best practices and seek solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in the field of intelligent electricity. Big stake holders of Power Industry, Govt. officials and ministers from power sector and academicians from different engineering colleges participated in the conference. Prof. Vinod Kumar, HOD - EEE along with four student of ECE 6th semester of DGI, Greater Noida, attended the conference.

Day 1: 23rd January 2017

Inaugural function of the Conference started at 11:30 AM with lighting of lamp followed by welcoming the digneteris on the dias by presenting the bouquet. The dignatories included :

Mr. Piyush Goyal Chief GuestHon’ble Minister of State for Power,
Shri Girish Shankar, Secretary, DHI, Ministry of heavy industries and Public enterprises,
Mr. Desh Deepak Verma, CEO, UP ERC,
Mr. Sanjeev Sardana, President IEEMA,
Mr. Prakash Chandrakar, Chairman Organizing Committee (INTELECT - 2017) and
Mr. Sunil Misra, Director General, IEEMA were also present.

In his inaugural speech, Chief Guest of the program, Mr. Piyush Goyal said, “India is world’s largest market in power sector and we have billion people aspiring for better quality of life and have an nascent and latent energy demand which will expand this sector by almost four times in the next 15-17 years. Different estimates have been made out but very clear this is one sector where any amount of investment made has the fastest payback both in terms not only in economic terms but also in terms of quality of life of our people but also has a great deal to do with a necessity for the entire economic development of the country for years and years. Smart meters can be a game changer when it comes to planning the electricity sector in the long run”.

After the inaugural speech, Mr. Goyal felicitated  Mr. Vishnu Agarwal, CMD, Technical Associates and Mr. Anil Chaudhary, country president and MD, schneider Electric for their contributions to the Indian electrical equipment industry.

Speaking on the inaugural of the INTELECT - 2017, IEEMA President, Mr. Sanjeev Sardana said, “The theme for this years INTELECT is “Redefining Electricity for Smarter Living” which is quite interesting as it is important to realize the need for intelligent electricity. Management of every watt of electricity from source to socket is essential to fulfil Prime Minister’s dream of 24 X 7 clean and affordable electricity for all” by 2019.

Mr. Prakash Chandrakar, Organizing Committee Chairman, INTELECT - 2017 said, “It is one of its only kind’s exhibition cum conference, organised by IEEMA to showcase the Indian electrical industry’s strength across the full electricity value chain.

Mr. Sunil Misra, Director General, IEEMA, said, “INTELECT is a great platform to experience evolving technologies and explore opportunities in the field of intelligent electricity. The coference has provided a focused platform for exhibitors to showcase their power distribution capabilities and solutions to a perfectly relevant audience.”

There was an special session for Govt of madhya Pradesh on overview and opportunities in Power Sector in MP and the session were taken by Mr. Sanjay Shukla, Secretary Department of Energy & Chairman MPPMCL, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh.

Day 2: 24th January 2017

Conference started at 10:30 AM on 24th January 2017 and following topics were covered during the day:

1. Session 1: The Future Energy World: Making the world a better place to live.
2. Session 2: Regulation, Grid code & policies on power sector & market mechanism.
3. Session 3: Leaveraging microgrid/smartgrid towards energy efficiency.
4. Cyber security- Threat, challenges and opportunity for T&D.

Moderator of session 1, Mr. Vikram Gandotra welcomed the speakers and requested  Mr. S. K. Soone, Advisor, POSOCO to speak on “Impact of New enegy mix, grid stability and Market mechanisms and start the session. Mr. Soone highlighted the transmission capacity of India and said that we have:
1. 765 KV high capacity network.
2. 400 KV backbone network.
3. Millions of EHV transmission towers

Dr. Rahul Tongia, scholar & Fellow at Brookings India talked on “Sustainability with asset management & optimization of resourses”. He said that energy is surplus still we are not able to tranfer sufficient energy to end users because of reasons like:
1. Phase balancing is not done in India.
2. We belive business as usual (BAU).
3. We are not willing to say “No” to utility.

Mr. Debasis Gupta, GM, CESC talked on “Urban Power Distribution – Challenges ahead”. He said that a lot of physical challenges exists during the power distribution like river crossing etc. he said that asset optimization is very important and suggested for more and more automation at LT level. He also focused on IT (Information Technology) ant OT (Operational Technology) integration.

Mr. Atul Bali, DGM, National Smart Grid Mission, talked on “Smart Grid – Use of other OT Technology”. He said that smart grid is basically the combination of Information and control. Intraoperability is the key challenge in smart grid.

Mr. Puneet H Singh, Director Energy & utility Ericssion, delivered  his talk on “Industry perspective and challenges in deployment”. He said that his company is the 5th largest telecom player in the world. He highlighted the key issues in deployment of smart metering.

Last session of the conference was on “Cyber Security – Threat, Challenges and Opportunity for T & D”.

Lt. General Arun Sahani, (Retd) Indian Army spoke on “Imortance & challenges of cyber security deployment”. Lt. General Sahani said that there are 3 biggest threats in the world i.e. water, migration and cyber security. So once any equipment is going to be designed it must be cyber secure and it should be taken care by that industry.

Mr. Dharmendra Kumar of TPDDL talked on “OT security system Vs IT security system”. Mr. P. K. Shrivastava, DGM, NTAMC (Powergrid) spoke on “Challenges in cyber security wayforward”. Last speaker of the conference Mr. Sandeep Pathania, Schneider Electric gave his presentation on “Governance Process, standerdization, testing and certification”.

Valedictory session started at 5:00 PM on 24th January 2017. During the valedictory Mrs. Indra Prem Menon – Vice President, IEEMA, Mr. Prakash Chandraker, Chairman - Intelect - 2017 and Mr. Sunil Misra, Director General - IEEMA were present.  Mrs. Menon rendered her vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, stake holders, academicians and other participants for making this conference grand success and meeting its objective in a fruitful manner. 2 days conference ended with high tea.