GE Digital's GridOS software is focused on helping electric utilities transition to a clean energy grid: Parag Marathe

GE Digital is a subsidiary of the American multinational conglomerate corporation General Electric. Headquartered in San Ramon, California, the company provides software and industrial IoT (IIoT) services to industrial companies. GE Digital show how to put your industrial data to work with software that helps to better operate, analyze and optimize business processes.

Parag Marathe, India Site Leader at GE Digital, tells us more. Excerpts from an interview:

DQ: Why has India been slow with decarbonization? What steps are being taken to improve this situation?

Parag Marathe: Developing countries around the world, owing to their varied economic trajectories, have been slower when compared to the developed world. The reasons for these are known to all. Today, with growing consciousness, India is emerging as a leader in furthering the principles of decarbonization. The country has been forthright in setting ambitious goals to increase the green cover, enhance its clean energy basket, and achieve net zero by 2070.

In recent years, government initiative for decarbonization has been impressive. Whether in setting robust targets, enabling conducive policies to encourage manufacturing of clean energy, recognizing the role of carbon markets, welcoming investments into the sector or recognizing the potential of newer fuels like hydrogen – India has been proactive in its approach.

Moving forward, India must diversify its approach to decarbonization by investing in storage options, digital technologies, and cloud solutions capable of managing and effectively distributing this new type of green power that is entering the grid. Ultimately, along with energy transition and decarbonization, India must equally incentivize energy security and access to affordable and reliable for all.

DQ: Even industrial AI has not taken off that rapidly in India. What steps are being taken?

Parag Marathe: Industrial AI is the future of technology and innovation. India has taken cognizance of this growth in recent years with Budget allocations to develop centres of excellence in AI, quantum computing, etc. As we double down on our goal to become a manufacturing hub, our capabilities in adopting industrial AI will be critical.

GE is playing a catalytic role here. GE Research sits at the nexus of the cloud and the edge, physical and digital, and hardware and software -- leading a revolution of new AI concepts and developments for the industrial world. A key focus area for us here is the Digital Twin.

Digital Twins are digital models we have created of our industrial assets, parts, manufacturing processes and even systems in which our assets are a part of, to deliver new business value for GE’s businesses and our customers.

AI and machine learning are two key capabilities integrated into our Digital Twin technology that enables data to be collected, analyzed and acted upon to optimize our various products and services. To date, GE has built up a vast catalogue of Digital Twins that have created $1.05 billion in value for GE and its customers.

DQ: Please elaborate on the GE Digital GridOS software.

Parag Marathe: Today’s changing power grid needs a modern approach to software, with an innovative architecture designed to accelerate innovation and grid modernization, transforming yesterday's grid into one that is built for the changes ahead.

For this, at GE Digital, we have developed GridOS, the first software portfolio that has been designed for grid orchestration and is focused on helping electric utilities transition to a clean energy grid. The software has been designed to modernize power grids by providing utilities with the flexibility needed to manage their increasing complexity. GridOS is a registered trademark for GE Digital.

GridOS utilizes advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to optimize grid performance and situational awareness, and is compatible with renewable energy resources, distributed energy resources, and energy storage systems.

The software enables utilities to monitor and manage grid assets in real-time, respond quickly to changes in demand and supply, and simulate and test various scenarios to make informed decisions and optimize performance.

GridOS is the first grid orchestration software that brings together energy data, network modelling, and AI-driven analytics across the grid to power a suite of composable applications that help utilities orchestrate an integrated, flexible, and secure clean energy grid. It is a one-of-a-kind solution that will be instrumental as India prepares for decarbonizing of its power sector.

DQ: Where is it being used? Please give some examples.

Parag Marathe: The GridOS platform and application suite supports our current grid operations portfolio that includes electric grid GIS for modeling, mapping, and design, AEMS for transmission and market management operations, ADMS for distribution network operations, and DERMs forecasting and management.

We have proven grid software solutions deployed globally and at scale helping utilities deliver reliable and resilient networks. Following are two examples of where our GridOS software applications have been deployed and delivering positive outcomes for our customers.

Alabama Power (US) needed a solution to minimize outages, automate restorations and improve their customer's experience. They implemented two advanced applications in the GridOS software suite, Fault Isolation and Service Restoration (FISR), as well as Fault Location (FL) in its Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS) to move from local intelligence to system intelligence, to minimize the outages and restoration times. They have reduced their operating costs, reduced 20 million customer minutes of interruption (CMI) annually, and restored customers power in under two minutes.

National Grid ESO (UK) has an ambition to operate the national electricity network at zero-carbon by 2025. Software is critical to helping them manage the complexity of renewables and orchestrate a clean energy grid. National Grid ESO has deployed Effective Inertia, an advance application in the GridOS portfolio, to enable higher penetration of renewable generation and reduced rate of change of frequency (RoCoF). This is a world-first initiative that will save millions for their customers, and marks another significant step on their energy transition journey.

DQ: How can GE Digital ensure that repair time gets reduced during critical events and power restoration can be faster?

Parag Marathe: GE Digital has host of solutions, both at the transmission and distribution segments to prevent any outages, and restore it fast.

At transmission level, GE’s APM (Asset Performance Management) gives the real-time health of large assets like power transformer and other primary equipment. Its vegetation management helps AI-based survey of transmission lines to prevent faults.

GE’s matured SCADA and EMS application managed load dispatch centre at nation, regional and state levels to manage complex India’s grid. Wide area monitoring system (WAMS) analyses grid in real time for any stability due to reasons such as over drawl, under frequency, renewable generation variations etc.

GE’s Transmission Asset Management (TAMC) has complex integration of SCADA applications with third party systems to provide operator visualisation and intelligence to remotely manage transmission stations and reduce down-time of transmission assets for National and State transmission operators like Power Grid and RRVPNL.

At distribution level, Advance Distribution Management System (ADMS) with its Outage Management System (OMS) effectively manages peak demand and faster restoration during outages. The software effectively manages peak demand through analysis of usage per consumer, forecasting and optimisation of power. It also helps maintenance staff in monitoring power situation via mobile devise and faster complaint management.

The innovative program fuels grid interoperability enhances reliability and resiliency. The Storm-assist software helps in effective prediction of storms and helps Distribution operators effectively manage major outages due to natural calamity. Historically, few days of restoration work during natural calamity can now be done in few hours.

Over a third of the global utilities rely on GE grid software to help them deliver reliable, sustainable, and affordable electricity. In a recent study of our US-based utility customers, we found they experienced 18% less network outages and realize 40% faster restoration times to keep the lights on for their customers.*

These customers have GridOS software applications deployed to help them plan and operate for disruptions that impact the reliability and resiliency of the grid to deliver power. The GridOS portfolio provides a suite of intelligent grid applications that evolve and modernize the grid control room for proactive and automated grid management. Following are a few examples of the GridOS software applications.

GridOS helps transmission operators with solutions to provide high availability and enable intense variable renewable penetration with modular, scalable power system applications such as Advanced Energy Management Systems (AEMS), Wide Area Monitoring Systems (WAMS), and Advanced Market Management Systems (AMMS) to support energy management and trading.

GridOS Visual Intelligence analytics help transmission and distribution utilities proactively manage vegetation to prevent outages and helps them efficiently manage vegetation encroachment which is one of the largest operating expenses for a utility.

For the distribution operators, GridOS applications such as the Advance Distribution Management System (ADMS) with its Outage Management System (OMS) effectively manages peak demand and faster restoration during outages.

The software effectively manages peak demand through analysis of usage per consumer, forecasting and optimization of power. It also helps maintenance staff in monitoring power flow via mobile devices and manage inbound customer incident reports. To manage grid disruptions, GridOS Storm software helps with the prediction of weather events and provides distribution operators the ability to effectively manage major outages.

*Data source from Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-861, October 2022, results based on Utilities in the United States who have 1.25 million customers or more. Reliability data shows average SAIDI and SAIFI with MED. Source: Annual Electric Power Industry Report, Form EIA-861 detailed data files.

Claim Notes: The report is based on reliability data, no calculations or assumptions were done. Data is from the US Energy information administration: “The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policy-making, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment.”

DQ: What are the current challenges in cloud-hosted system maintenance, metering field services, etc.?

Parag Marathe: One of the primary challenges in cloud-hosted system maintenance is ensuring the reliability and availability of the cloud infrastructure itself. This requires ongoing monitoring, maintenance, and upgrades to ensure that the system is functioning optimally and that any issues are quickly identified and resolved.

In the case of metering field services, one of the key challenges is ensuring accurate and timely data collection. This requires the deployment of reliable and robust hardware and software systems that can capture data in real-time and transmit it securely to the cloud.

Other challenges in both cloud-hosted system maintenance and metering field services include data security, scalability, and interoperability. As these systems become more complex and interconnected, ensuring seamless integration and data exchange between different systems and platforms will be critical to their success.

Additionally, ensuring the privacy and security of sensitive data will be an ongoing challenge as these systems continue to evolve and expand.

DQ: Do you see the role of the distribution grid growing and evolving?

Parag Marathe: Yes! The role of the distribution grid is likely to grow and evolve in the coming years. With the increasing adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar panels and wind turbines, the distribution grid will play a critical role in integrating these resources into the broader energy system.

In addition, as electrification of transportation and heating systems continues, the distribution grid will be tasked with managing the increased demand for electricity. To meet these challenges, the distribution grid will need to evolve to become more flexible, resilient, and intelligent, leveraging advanced technologies, such as GridOS orchestration software, to leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.