Spurred by the success of satellite based communication in power sector, as demonstrated by the Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company Limited (Gescom), an ambitious plan has been taken up to extend the benefits to the whole State.

The ‘Integrated Extended Scada’ will see the linking of over 1,000 nodes in the State through the satellite in a project that could bring in large savings.

It was K R Adiseshan, a KPTCL engineer working for Gescom, who set the ball rolling. He implemented the VidyutNet network that connected all the generating stations and sub-stations in the district for an efficient real time data exchange and acquisition.

While, the sub-stations were linked through VSATs (very small aperture terminals), the headquarters were connected to a hub antenna.Linked to the Insat 3C, this facilitated the exchange of information between these centres, he told Deccan Herald.

“There is data going from every sub-station for every 2.5 seconds. The important aspect is that this is reliable data. This is the first such major link-up in any power sector in the world.”

There have been no grid disturbances nor outages (power cuts due to defects in the system) since the project was taken up in 1999, he said. The project worth Rs 200 crore was conceived and developed by Adiseshan and has resulted in the VTU awarding him a doctorate.

“The whole cost incurred for the equipment and Scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) was recovered in two years. This was mostly by reducing the losses that is otherwise large.”

He has also linked the KPTCL grid to the web, thus enabling anyone to access information on the power status of any place in the State via the Net. Mr Adiseshan presented a paper on the subject at the International Astronautical Congress held at Hyderabad.

The paper has been referred for international publication, he said.