"AI Data Centres Strain India's Power Grid, Raise Upgrade Costs"
SCADA/EMS
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/Energy Management System used to monitor and control power grids in real time.
Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM)
a system penalising or rewarding generators/discoms for gaps between scheduled and actual power supply.
India's electricity grid works as one connected national system, managed by Grid-India (earlier called POSOCO), which sits above five Regional Power Committees: Northern, Eastern, Western, Southern, and North-Eastern. Grid-India and the Regional Power Committees coordinate electricity dispatch and grid stability across India. Power is carried over long distances by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), the main central transmission company, while State Load Despatch Centres manage supply within each state.
These control centres run on SCADA/EMS (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/Energy Management System) software and hardware. SCADA/EMS systems give real-time monitoring and control of electricity grids, letting operators see demand and supply at every point on the network and respond quickly to faults. Keeping this hardware updated is routine work, but costs rise when older parts are phased out and global demand for the same components goes up.
India's power sector has long struggled with a gap between planned and actual capacity addition, with successive five-year plans falling short of their generation targets, and with high losses in transmission and distribution. This history matters because it shows the grid was already working with limited room to spare before a new kind of demand, from AI data centres, began testing it further.
AI data centres are not like a typical factory or township load. They draw a high and fairly constant amount of power around the clock, but this can also shift sharply depending on how much computing work (especially large AI models) is running and which time zone their users are in. Conventional power plants, especially older or slow-responding ones, cannot always change their output fast enough to match such shifts. When actual supply and demand don't match the day-ahead schedule, the Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM) applies. A Deviation Settlement Mechanism is a system that penalises or rewards generators and distribution companies for the gap between their scheduled and actual power supply. Data centres draw high, constant loads that can shift abruptly, straining slow-ramping generators, which can then face DSM penalties for deviations that are not really their fault. …
With reference to India's power sector institutions, consider the following pairs:
1.Grid-India — Coordination of the national integrated power grid
2.Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) — Inter-state transmission infrastructure
3.Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) — Regulation of inter-state transmission tariffs
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
Consider the following statements about AI data centres' impact on India's power grid:
1.They typically exhibit high constant electricity loads.
2.Their demand can vary based on server distribution and time zones of customers.
3.Their load fluctuations can expose generators to Deviation Settlement Mechanism penalties.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Consider the following statements regarding the Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM) in India's power sector:
1.It penalises or rewards generators and distribution companies for deviations between scheduled and actual electricity supply.
2.It applies exclusively to renewable energy generators.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which of the following best explains the principle underlying CERC's requirement that costs of dedicated transmission infrastructure for a bulk consumer be recovered from that consumer?
The term 'SCADA/EMS', often used in the context of electricity grid operations, refers to a system primarily meant for which of the following?
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