The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has approved the Uniform Protection Protocol to ensure grid stability, reliability, and security and safely integrate 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030 and 2,100 GW by 2047.

The National Power Committee, in consultation with the Regional Power Committee (RPCs), prepared the Uniform Protection Protocol.

The Uniform Protection Protocol will apply to all regional entities, state/central/private generating companies/ generating stations, state load despatch centers, regional load despatch centers, Central Transmission Utility of India, state transmission utilities, transmission licensees, and regional power committees, connected at 220 kV.

The protocol mandates protection requirements for thermal and hydro generating units, renewable energy generations, battery energy storage systems, substations, transmission lines, and high-voltage direct current terminals.

It also provides for collecting adequate disturbance data for grid event analysis, protection audits, performance monitoring, and reporting to load disptach centers, and compliance monitoring and escalation to the regulatory commission.

As per Indian Electricity Grid Code 2023, a uniform protection protocol must exist for the grid users to properly coordinate the protection system to protect the equipment/system from abnormal operating conditions, isolate faulty equipment, and avoid unintended operation of the protection system.

The committee also discussed critical issues of the Indian power sector, such as the transition to five-minute interface energy meters along with an automatic meter reading system across India, unified accounting software for energy transactions, the standard operating procedure for voice over internet protocol connectivity, and supervisory control and data acquisition.

For three days in August 2024, India’s electricity grid witnessed persistent high frequency above the ceiling of 50.05 Hz for 26% to 38% of the time.

Earlier this year, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission issued the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (Deviation Settlement Mechanism and Related Matters) Regulations, 2024. These regulations seek to ensure, through a commercial mechanism, that grid users do not deviate from their schedule of drawal and injection of electricity in the interest of security and stability of the grid.