Incorporation of Renewable Energy into Grid to Drive Transmission and Distribution Market

Tuesday 8 April 2014, Amsterdam

As demand for electricity continues to increase, power producers are diversifying the sources from which electricity is generated. Countries are increasingly investing in alternative fuels, such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass and nuclear power, to meet the growing demand. Among the Asia-Pacific countries, China and India have the most extensive plans for expanding installed renewable capacity. By 2020, China and India are expected to have respective wind power capacities of around 239 Gigawatts (GW) and 37 GW. The incorporation of renewable energy into their grids will drive investment in their Transmission and Distribution (T&D) sectors. Australia and Japan also have robust plans for increasing the share of renewable energy in their respective power mixes.


Smart Grid Deployment to Promote Efficient Power Consumption

Nearly all of the major countries in Asia-Pacific are pursuing the deployment of smart grid technology, with the intention of increasing the efficiency of their power distribution systems and ensuring that their power consumption is monitored effectively. China is the leading country in this region in terms of smart grid development. The State Grid Corporation of China plans to invest $45 billion in various smart grid projects between 2012 and 2015. In September 2013 the Indian government published the “Smart Grid Vision and Roadmap for India”. In Japan, four smart city demonstration projects are currently in progress, while in 2010 Australia began modernizing its power distribution system with the “Smart Grid, Smart City” project.  


Robust Regulatory Framework

Most of the Asia-Pacific countries are working towards setting up a robust regulatory framework for facilitating the growth of their T&D sectors. They are formulating effective policies and targets for driving this growth. China has set a target to interconnect its existing grids and form an integrated synchronous national grid by 2020. India has a very detailed set of rules and regulations for its T&D sector. The regulations relate to inter-state transmission licenses, electricity grid code, and long- and medium-term open access, among other things. New Zealand also has a good regulatory framework, which specifically contains regulations pertaining to interconnection rules and grid reliability standards. Japan enacted the Electricity System Reform law in November 2013. The law concerns establishing a national grid company by 2015, unbundling the generation and transmission sector and liberalizing the power market for residential purposes. Other countries, including Indonesia, are likely to establish a suitable regulatory framework in the near future.