IBM announced that it has signed a research collaboration agreement with IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur to develop systems that will help power grids become more efficient and resilient. The systems will analyze power grid data for predictive insights. They will also improve grids to enhance productivity and reduce inefficiencies in power consumption. IBM Research India will work with these two premiere institutes to develop open system designs that can boost the potential of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU),a new type of sensor on power grids. The IBM researchers and the students will develop network architectures to reliably collect data from PMUs as well as analytics tools that process the collected data to provide valuable information to the grid operators. The knowledge and insights gained from this collaborative research work will be made publicly available,in order to allow governments and businesses around the world to take advantage of the PMU technology. According to the International Energy Agency the global demand for electricity is expected to increase significantly during the period from 2006 to 20301.1% per year on average in the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. In comparison,increases are 7.6% in China and about 6% in India per year. This rising demand increases stress on grids,thereby growing the chances of power outages. To prevent such outages and their impact on productivity,it is important to make the grid more intelligent by adding sensing,control and communication components.
