Applicability of VSAT Communication for Indian Power System

Indian power system is one of the largest synchronously operated Power System Networks in the world with an installed capacity of about 370 GW. The Indian Power Grid is being monitored by a multi-level integrated Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA)/ Energy Management System (EMS) installed at many control centres (or Load Despatch Centres) dispersed all over India. The Load Despatch Centres acquire real-time data from the substations as well from the other control centres and this critical power system operational data is transferred through a dedicated and secure communication system backbone network spread across the country. Keeping in view the importance of the communication system in a vast meshed network at the National, Regional and State level in India, the regulatory body of power sector i.e. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has also specified the regulations regarding Communication System for inter-State transmission of electricity. Apart from the conventional communication systems such as PLCC, Optical-fiber, etc., the VSAT communication is also making its place as a communication medium due to the various advantages it offers. The VSAT bandwidth connectivity charges have fallen in the past few years making it viable for being used in the power sector for the utilities. Hence, by adopting a reliable and easy-to-install communication technology such as VSAT will remove the communication related issues which is one of the major hurdles resulting in non-availability of real-time data to the Load Despatchers. Certain pilot projects had been done in North-Eastern Region with satisfactory performance for real-time data transfer. It was proven that the VSAT communication was able to cater the real-time operational data transfer requirements with an overall availability of more than 99% (excl. some minor technical issues) even in bad weather conditions. This paper deliberates the various key benefits and architectures of using VSAT communication in power sector of India.