The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri R.K. Singh along with the Minister of State for Power, Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar launched the Virtual Smart Grid Knowledge Center (Virtual SGKC) and Innovation Park virtually today as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Programme, which is an initiative of Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of India’s independence and glory.

The event was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Power (MOP), POWERGRID, National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The event also witnessed virtual participation from State leadership, distribution companies, industry, academia and international institutions from India and across the world.

The SGKC has been established by POWERGRID with support from the MOP and NSGM for demonstration and advancement of frontier smart grid technologies. It is located within the POWERGRID.

SGKC aims to be one of the leading Centers of Excellence globally to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and research in smart grid technologies and create capacities in the power distribution sector. The Virtual SGKC that was launched today enables a digital footprint of the physical setup of SGKC, the need for which was felt during COVID-19 pandemic.

The Virtual SGKC has been conceptualized and developed by POWERGRID with support from the Ministry of Power and technical assistance from USAID. The platform as launched co-exists with the physical setup and provides remote access to all existing SGKC offerings and more.

The platform presently hosts more than 50 solutions from over 30 technology partners across 8 thematic areas spanning across new and advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, IOT, etc.

The solutions which are physically present at SGKC premises at Manesar are also hosted on this platform. This includes solutions such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), smart homes, microgrids, Outage Management System (OMS), etc.

At the launch event, Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri R.K. Singh delivered the key address and congratulated PGCIL and USAID for setting up the Virtual SGKC. He pointed out that the world is changing in a rapid phase in the energy sector, which has also been witnessed in India. He said that India is way ahead in the energy transition and the rate of implementation of Renewable energy capacity in the country is way faster compared to any other countries around the world.

 The Minister has asked all the distribution and transmission companies to visit the SGKC both physically and virtually for utilizing the technology. He said that the government will provide aid to give assistance to the engineers and innovators with bright ideas in the smart system technology.

Shri R.K Singh in his concluding remarks said that the launch of SGKC is another key step towards the future. “Let’s go ahead with the future and make it bigger”, the Minister said.

The Minister of State for Power, Shri Krishan Pal said that the SGKC has been developed with a vision to support smart grid initiatives in India and steadily progress towards the the goal of creating utilities of future. “We need to leverage advanced technologies, and data analytics to modernize our energy sector”, added Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar.

Present at the occasion, Ms. Veena Reddy, Mission Director, USAID - India enumerated on the longstanding bilateral energy partnership between India and US and its continuous focus on energy security and innovation. She also highlighted that MOP and USAID have jointly rolled out several initiatives on distribution sector reforms, and institution capacity building of power sector personnel to help improve efficiencies. She further added that Virtual SGKC will be critical in accelerating the pace of adoption of smart grid technologies that will help DISCOMs to become smarter and agile to be at par with latest technological advancements worldwide.

As a next step, a Technology Incubation Hub is planned to be setup in SGKC campus to nurture startups and promote continuous innovation in the power sector by providing access to infrastructure, mentorship, market, and funding.

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MV/IG