Many projects of researchers are dumped in labs only for want of funds to create a prototype for presenting in the market. But budding engineers and scientists now have a reason to cheer. Punjab Technical University (PTU) has given a proposal to create a prototype development fund worth Rs 2 crore per annum so as to fund at least 20 researchers in a year. This was confirmed by Dr Rajneesh Arora,V-C of PTU,who had come to inaugurate International Conference on Power Systems Operation and Control (ICOPS) in GNDEC. Dr Arora said,In our yesterdays meeting with representatives from IIT Ropar,Lovely Professional University and Thapar Institute,I proposed this fund and the monitoring and selection of the projects will be done by IIT Ropar. On average,to create one prototype and to do proper marketing,funds worth Rs 10 lakh are required and hence we have decided to fund 20 projects in a year from all the colleges of Punjab. This will bring new innovations in the market. The above mentioned colleges have formed an innovation group that meets once a month ,said Dr Arora. He said he has to put this proposal before the PTU board,but the members have already given their consent and hence,by next month,this project is likely to be implemented. At the ICOPS conference Dr Akhtar Alam,Professor,School of Victoria University,Australia was the keynote speaker. He stressed that smart grids are the future of electricity. As of now,in India,this system has been implemented in only a few parts of Bangalore. These are wireless grids and underground fibre optic cables are laid at 3-foot depth. The maximum advantage is for the consumers who can get electricity from their choice of grid from any state they like. So the consumers can have a choice. In this way,suppliers will have to be more competitive. However it was revealed that the project is 1.5 times costlier than the existing overhead wires project,but the actual maintenance cost is far less in the smart grids after the installation. The conference has been sponsored by All India Council for Technical Education,Department of Science and Technology,CSIR,Punjab Technical University and PEDA along with many from Industry.
