IIT Madras to put an end to load shedding in India through low power DC lines

Engineers at IIT Madras have rolled up sleeves to put an end to the load shedding problems in India. A pilot project taken up at IIT will aim at totally eliminating load-shedding in select southern states. The project involves setting up low-power DC lines from the nearest sub-station to individual houses. The state electricity boards will install these lines, capable of powering about three bulbs, two fans and a mobile charger. Depending on the data collected during the trial run, the power ministry will be able to decide on executing the project on a nationwide scale. We keep our fingers crossed.

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The lower power DC (direct current) line will run from substation to house, feeding into a separate meter. The rest of the house will be metered separately for AC power usage. Except for the repairs, it's expected that these 100 watt power lines will never need a shut-down. If this approach is successful, the blackouts can be eliminated immediately. IIT-M engineers say the blackouts will be turned into 'brownouts'; meaning, a few lights will continue to operate even when regular power supply fails.

The project is a brainchild of director of IIT-M, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy and professor of electrical engineering, Ashok Jhunjhunwala. The MoUs have already been signed with the states of TN, Karnataka, AP and Kerala. A central committee formed by the Government and headed by the Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, Mr. Anil Kakodkar will oversee the project.

The project will also be very cost effective. Subscriber who opt for these low power DC lines will have to pay about Rs. 1000 to install a device at home. Of course, LED lights and Fans that run on DC power will have to be purchased separately. A team from IIT-M will visit the consumers who are willing to participate in the experiment and perform necessary inspections in the houses. The nearby transformers will then be tweaked to setup DC power lines.

Setting up short-range DC lines would be a problem to avoid complete blackouts; and is going to be incredibly useful during night-times and in areas where summer temperatures cross 40 degrees and beyond. We'd like to ask our readers their opinion on the feasibility of project and its ability to offer uninterrupted power supply all over India.

Source: IIT-Madras project to supply low-power DC may end outages - The Economic Times

Replies

  • lal
    lal
    "The project involves setting up
    low-power DC lines from the nearest sub-station to individual houses."

    I'm a bit confused about this part. Low power dc lines to Individual houses. Does that mean seperate lines running directly from the substation to each house? If every house chooses to have a dc line, I wonder what the network of these dc electric cables will look like. Or may be I am visualising it wrong.

    I wish Tesla was alive. Free energy, wireless energy!
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    @#-Link-Snipped-# - That's right. The plan is to set up low-power lines to every house. I tried to look for more information about the project, but couldn't find the details on how they plan to setup these lines.

    I think our readers from IIT M may request the project coordinators to respond and help us understand the project better.
  • lal
    lal
    That 'sounds' complex! But then, it is IIT. They may be having something that is totally different in mind.

    Some how, the concept doesn't seem much appealing to me. A subsidised inverter and solar panel seems more flexible.

    Well, I am aware we should wait for more details about the project before criticising it. There must be something awesome in it.
  • aady_007
    aady_007
    technically what is low power DC line it can be a great topic for Paper presentation
  • lal
    lal
    Low power DC line - (in this case) an electric distribution line which carries limited direct current to house holds ๐Ÿ˜

    I just read the voltage of these lines are supposed to be 48V. And these are supposed to deliver 100W, which implies a little over 2A will be the maximum current flowing through it. Very reasonable enough to bundle many insulated copper wires together and lay as underground cables (may be). But then, the cost of laying copper conductors to each house and the energy lost during distribution (substation is not as close as neighbour's house ๐Ÿ˜), what about them? Still feasible?

    Very curious! They should spit out more details ๐Ÿ˜

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