Smart Grid and Retail Competition in India: A Review on Technological and Managerial Initiatives and Challenges

Retail competition in power sector can enable fully competitive power distribution model which when integrated with smart grid technology such as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) can become more effective. Retail competition influences the stakeholders in three different ways; i) consumers can avail cheaper power, ii) reduction of losses in power system, and iii) there can be options for consumers to choose the best service provider. A fast developing economy like India cannot shut doors against these benefits. But there are challenges in realising benefits of retail competition. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art of smart grid development in India. It is essential that the smart grid development and retail competition implementation should go in a synchronized manner. Given this, in the review the smart grid and retail competition initiatives and challenges are divided into two main categories. First is technological initiatives and challenges, and second is the managerial initiatives and challenges. Major technological initiatives are dynamic grid control, renewable energy integration, privacy and security, and communication infrastructure. Managerial initiatives discuss recent electricity bill 2014, policy initiatives, programs for smart grid development, etc.