MeitY Secretary Launches Microgrid for Rural Community Energy Needs

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma launched the indigenous Technology of Hybrid Green Energy Microgrid for Electrical energy requirements of the Rural communities developed by C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram, as part of National Mission on Power Electronics Technology (NaMPET) Program, here today at Elephant Rehabilitation Centre (ERC), Kottoor, Thiruvananthapuram.

Addressing the gathering, Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma said that “MeitY is prioritising and  putting enormous efforts to realise unique technology development and deployments through  C-DAC. The reliable green energy based microgrid seems to be providing the power solution for critical systems in the Veterinary hospital systems in ERC. We need to concentrate and focus our efforts to the high performance and efficient technology and system developments. The technology shall be extended to the remote communities through wider deployments.”

Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma said, “The initiative and support being provided by forest department for technology evaluation is appreciable. Green technology is effectively being used in the rehabilitation of wild animals also here. The system shall be used for dissemination of such advanced technologies to the society especially the younger generation and school children.”

Microgrid: A renewable energy microgrid is an autonomous, localised and self-contained energy system that incorporates renewable energy sources as its primary generation inputs. The major building blocks of a renewable energy microgrid include various components and systems that work together to generate, store, manage, and distribute energy in a localized and sustainable manner. In the off-grid mode of operation of a microgrid, it generates, stores, and distributes electricity within a specific area or community while prioritizing the use of renewable energy to minimize reliance on fossil fuels and reduce environmental impact. In the on-grid mode of operation, the microgrid will be able to interact with utility grid and export power if the generation is excess of what is locally needed.

In the microgrid scheme implemented in ERC, a unique 25kW Power Conditioning Unit (PCU) technology using Silicon Carbide, a Wide Band Gap (WBG)  Semiconductor device operating at  50kHz and avoiding  bulky 50Hz transformer make the system very compact and a container based deployment in remote location is realised. The above Technology is developed by CDAC.

The official from MeitY, Dr Om Krishan Singh, Scientist ‘D’; other dignitaries from MeitY; C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram and Forest Department, Govt of Kerala were present on the occasion.