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A large industrial company, involved in mineral extraction in India, had set up a captive power plant. The company then entered into an open access agreement with the distribution utility to route the generated electricity to four of its other units, using the utility’s network.

Under this agreement, while the company could divert any excess electricity to its other units it had to pay a fixed charge to the utility, based on their contract demand.

The problem

In the absence of a robust monitoring system, the company was struggling to account for:

  • Electricity generated
  • Actual electricity used by its plant
  • Electricity transmitted and delivered to other units
  • Estimation of its contract demand with respect to the tariff code of the utility

A monitoring and reporting system would help administer the supply and open access contracts with the utility.

The solution

An ABT metering system comprising Apex meters, software and communication modules was installed at the four remote sites and at the central generating station. The communication between all these stations was through V-SAT. This had been installed by the company.

Each of the remote sites could monitor its energy consumption and all these remote sites could be monitored from the central station.
The “STARS” software package was configured to collect and publish required energy data every minute.

Implementation of the scheme lead to a saving of approximately Rs. 3 million per month.

System Schematic

Benefits of the system

1. The company was able to fulfill regulatory requirements
2. Using online data and its analysis, the industry was able to reduce their contract demand and hence the fixed charges payable to the utility. This lead to a saving of approximately Rs. 3 million per month.
3. The company was able monitor the export of electricity to the grid and the electricity drawn by its remote units.
4. It could obtain information of and operationally manage electricity demand and outages at all its sites.