ABB partners IIT Roorkee for smart power distribution, pilot project to help Smart Cities mission

Swiss engineering and power major ABB, which has been aggressively in its stance towards being a major player in clean energy and EV charging business. The company’s Indian operations (ABB India) signed a MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR) for technical cooperation on July 5, 2018.

As per the MoU, ABB India will construct an operational smart electricity distribution network and management system (SDNMS) in the IIT campus.

According to the partners this will serve as a pilot project for the government of India’s ‘Smart Cities Mission’. The agreement also includes the creation of a Smart Grids Resource Centre and joint R&D facilities in the field of efficient power generation and distribution with a focus on clean energy over the next five years.

"ABB has a strong relationship with India, having collaborated on several projects over many decades. Our agreement with IIT Roorkee strengthens ABB’s mission to nurture innovative thinking that helps people lead better lives,” said Sanjeev Sharma, MD, ABB India. “The project signed today serves as a proof of concept of using smart grids and intelligent automation to efficiently manage power distribution. It would make India’s vision of power to all a reality and ultimately realise ABB’s goal of building technology that runs the world without consuming the earth.”

IIT Roorkee has been working towards building a more eco-friendly campus using renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and biomass for power generation and utilisation. ABB has a portfolio of products for the integration, distribution and automation of interconnected renewable energy sources that form local distribution grids.

Commenting on the MoU, Prof Ajit Chaturvedi, director, IIT Roorkee, said, “Concern for sustainability has always driven all major campus development related activities of IIT Roorkee, making us one of the pioneers in this space. IIT Roorkee has been harnessing solar energy not only for electricity generation but also for providing direct hot water to all its hostels and residences in the campus, and also carries out solar based cooking in the hostels.”

“The smart energy management and distribution agreement with ABB takes us many steps closer to creating a 100 percent green campus and achieving zero carbon dioxide emission in the long run,” added Chaturvedi.

The partners state they will collaborate in assimilating various supply and demand side equipment, devices and systems into an automated and hybrid energy distribution and management system for the campus. ABB will also provide design, engineering, procurement, testing and other services for the SDNMS project, which is expected to be operational in FY2019.

ABB’s equipment, such as the ring main unit upgrade, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, microgrids and energy management systems will be installed to automate and remotely monitor, control and measure the campus grid. The integrated system will offer more power resilience, lower costs due to reduced dependency on electricity sourced from the government utility and diesel generators.

Experts from ABB will provide inputs for the creation of an SDNMS simulation at the SGRC which will serve as a platform for testing new ideas and techniques for field trials before deployment. A joint R&D facility on campus, supported by ABB, will be created to tighten collaboration between academia and industry and nurture talent through ABB-sponsored scholarships.

ABB is also leading other projects in the country that include electrification and automation systems powering the world’s largest single-location solar project in Tamil Nadu and its network management solutions which it claims ensures 60 million people in Karnataka receive reliable power. ABB Ability-enabled technology will support a digital substation in Mumbai, Maharashtra, which will be instrumental in transmitting clean energy from nearby solar plants to the rest of the state.