Tata Power-DDL and Nissin Electric Co., Ltd. to commence a Demonstration Project to supply electricity from India’s First Micro Substation with Power Voltage Transformer (PVT)

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (Tata Power-DDL), a leading power utility supplying electricity to over 2 million customers in North Delhi and Nissin Electric Co. Ltd. – Kyoto (Japan) based leading electric equipment company will kick-start a demonstration project to supply electricity from India’s first Micro Substation with Power Voltage Transformer (PVT) to ensure stable power for areas without a power grid.

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

The project aims to supply cost-effective and stable power to remote areas across India that are far from power grid or don’t have fully developed grid but they do have power transmission lines nearby. Instead of constructing a large network that requires substantial budget and large installation space, Micro Substation with PVT can convert high-voltage power directly from transmission lines to low voltage power suitable for residential consumers. For this demonstration project it will be a 100 kVA installation which will be directly stepping down the 3 phase 66 kilo Volts 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 & switchgears) will be customized for this specific installation. The introduction of this technology is primarily aimed at low cost and reliable power supply to remote load centres with challenging terrains. This micro-substation has the potential to contribute to disaster recovery.

Speaking on the project, Mr. Gajanan S. Kale, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Power-DDL said, “We are excited to join hands with Nissin Electric to run this momentous project that has the potential to change the matrix of power supply. 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.”

This demonstration project is scheduled to run until FY2025. 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 Micro Substation with PVT in India.

Commenting upon the objective of the project, Mr. Kenji Kobayashi, Managing Director, Nissin Electric Co. Ltd 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.”

Nissin Electric, along with Tata Power-DDL will verify environmental compliance, the reliability of power supply, the effectiveness of power quality, and the 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, apart from expanding these technologies to other regions in India possibly with Tata Power-DDL and other countries facing similar issues.

Prior to the start of the project, NEDO signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC), which is a leading Non-Banking Financial Corporation under administrative control of India’s Ministry of Power, on January 10th of this year regarding a demonstration project to supply power through a micro substation using PVT.