Tata Power Delhi Distribution (Tata Power-DDL) and Nissin Electric Co will all start a demonstration project to supply electricity from India’s first micro substation, ensuring stable power for remote areas without a power grid.

The project is part of the International Demonstration Project on Japan’s Energy Efficiency Technologies, which was publicly solicited by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Tata Power-DDL and Nissin Electric signed a Project Agreement (PA) on August 21, 2024, to commence this project.

This demonstration project is scheduled to run until FY25. After installing and testing the equipment at a substation on the outskirts of Delhi, the company will start operations in March 2025. This is the first demonstration project of a Micro Substation with a Power Voltage Transformer (PVT) in India.

Tata Power-DDL CEO Gajanan S Kale said, “It is also in line with Tata Power-DDL’s commitment towards sustainable and reliable power supply and holds immense potential to solve the issues related to power supply in the large remote & rural areas of India.”    

Micro substation

The project aims to supply cost-effective and stable power to remote areas across India that are far from the power grid or do not have a fully developed grid but do have power transmission lines nearby.

Instead of constructing a large network that requires a substantial budget and large installation space, a micro substation with PVT can convert high-voltage power directly from transmission lines to low-voltage power suitable for residential consumers.

This demonstration project will be a 100 kVA installation that directly steps down the 3-phase 66 kilovolts to 1-phase 240 Volts power supply.

The approximate area required for this installation will be only 40 sq meters. All the necessary electrical equipment (protection and switchgear) will be customised for this specific installation. The introduction of this technology is primarily aimed at providing a low-cost and reliable power supply to remote load centres with challenging terrains.

This micro-substation also has the potential to contribute to disaster recovery.

Energy infrastructure

Nissin Electric Managing Director Kenji Kobayashi said, “We, at Nissin Electric, are stepping up efforts to promote SDGs across our business verticals. On one hand, this project targets two areas of SDGs – Affordable & clean energy and Industry, innovation & Infrastructure, on the other, it provides us an opportunity to make substantial contribution in India’s evolving energy infrastructure along with our partner Tata Power-DDL.”

Along with Tata Power-DDL, Nissin Electric will verify environmental compliance, power supply reliability, power quality effectiveness, and local load characteristics from the data generated.

Additionally, the company will establish a technology to supply stable power to areas where a power grid is not yet developed or non-electrified areas. It will also expand these technologies to other regions in India, possibly with Tata Power-DDL and other countries facing similar issues.

Before starting the project, NEDO signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Power Finance Corporation (PFC) on January 10 of this year regarding a demonstration project to supply power through a micro substation using PVT.

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