As part of the Indo-German Energy Program, GIZ led stakeholder discussions on "Technical standards for DER Integration in India" in collaboration with Energynautics and Idam Infrastructure. The workshops were part of an activity of the GIZ-implemented project “Energy Transition with DISCOMs”. As a part of the activity, international technical standards for DER integration were reviewed, gap analyses for India were performed, and recommendations were developed.

Two workshops were held to disseminate the findings of the activity between 22 and 26 August 2022 in the cities of Gandhinagar and Thiruvananthapuram, respectively. Over 100 key stakeholders from each state participated, including representatives of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GUVNL), Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), Gujarat Energy Development Agency, Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute, and EPC companies. The events provided the opportunity to collect feedback from these key stakeholders to further work on the roadmap recommendations.

The major technical difficulties with DER integration were discussed in the session, along with several potential mitigating measures. Additionally, recommendations for identifying the technical requirements for integrating DERs in low voltage distribution systems were discussed, highlighting the significance of technical standards and compliance mechanisms. The beneficiaries of this assignment, like officials from GUVNL and KSEB, praised the efforts of the project team and the experts for their recommendations about technical connectivity standards. Moreover, the officers from KSEB mentioned the need to standardise the technical requirements to mitigate the impact of DER integration. It was mentioned that they are observing voltage surges on solarised feeders and mitigating such voltage surge is one of the various challenges they are facing due to DERs. They acknowledged the need to work on the technical standards for low voltage systems as well. The roadmap recommendations have been submitted to CEA for their future perusal. 

For more information please contact Ms. Vibhuti Nougain, vibhuti.nougain(at)giz.de.