MicroTech wins USAID sponsored AMI project to eliminate unscheduled load-shedding

MicroTech has been selected to implement the first of the kind implementation of AMI technology in a project awarded by PITC and sponsored by USAID to monitor load and losses at grid and feeder level. The solution is based on MicroTech's fleet of Advanced Metering Infrastructure solutions including metering and backend software system that shall be deployed at all nine DISCOs as well as the National Power Control Center (NPCC). The project has been designed to eliminate incidences of unscheduled load shedding by accurately assessing total load demand information on a near real time basis, and thus shall impact the lives of the hundreds of millions of people connected to the national electricity grid network.

Pakistan has been suffering from acute power shortages that can go up to 6000 MW in peak times of the year. In order to make the impact of load shedding less disruptive the use of MicroTech's product portfolio shall be very instrumental; MTI's metering products have been designed and tested to work in the strenuous conditions of Pakistan. The AMI products have the capability to communicate over the GSM network in a secure manner and can relay information between different elements of the grid network including control centers of all the nine DISCOs and NPCC.

Specialized AMI meters shall be installed on all incoming and outgoing feeders which shall also provide information on breaker status and time interval data on system load. To elaborate, instantaneous load information on all AMI meters installed on feeders shall be relayed to each grid substation, and consolidated data emanating from all substation grids connected to a DISCO will then presented to the DISCO operator as a single total load value, while supporting the remarkable capability to view live screens for viewing instantaneous data on load etc. at different points of the grid network. Furthermore, DISCO substation aggregated loads can be presented as the total grid load. The impact of transmission loss is also included in reports for better monitoring and planning. The DISCO control center operators shall also have the ability to drill down into the data for a particular grid substation and see the load on any 11 kV feeder with 5 and 15 minutes interval data for incoming and outgoing feeders respectively.

All this will greatly augment the capability of WAPDA to avoid unscheduled load shedding, be able to schedule power generation better and for effective planning of load shedding events. Summarized information shall be provided to all the DISCOs along with the NPCC control center with details of actual load of all grid substations in each DISCO.

MicroTech's CEO, Mr. Saeed remarked on this occasion by saying, "We take pride in being selected to provide complete end-to-end technology solution for this project and it seems that all our hard work and sweat in building this technology has finally paid off. Since, we had been awarded the project after a tedious tendering process involving international and local vendors, it goes to show our strength in technological preparedness in the AMI segment." He went on to say, "The collaboration with PITC and USAID for MTI's AMI solutions exalts the importance of this technology for a country like Pakistan; because of this the electricity operator can now perform important load monitoring and planning functions in near real time, something that wasn't possible before."

Mr. Nauman Saeed also shared his passion for harnessing local R&D capabilities to produce technology that addresses the pains of the electricity sector and as a result directly impacts the life of the common man. He said, "Our AMI solution to eliminate unscheduled load-shedding has been devised keeping in line our tradition to produce technology solutions that become growth enablers and improve the livelihood of the ordinary people. I can't see any other technology making as far reaching impact on the lives of the common man in face of current energy shortfall. Also we will continue to hone our skills and capabilities to build an ever growing pool of intellectual asset to solve problems in the electricity segment at home and abroad"

MicroTech is engaged in the fulfillment of a contract for providing 10,190 AMI meters, Meter Data Collection System for all nine DISCOs including main and backup servers and three years maintenance and upgrade services.