IEEE BUET Student Branch with IEEE Power & Energy Society BUET Student Branch Chapter in association with IEEE Bangladesh Section, IEEE BDS HAC & IEEE SIGHT FLASH of IEEE BDS hosted a webinar titled “COVID-19 & Electric Grid: Utility’s First Response against the Pandemic” on 28 May 2020. The lecture was attended by 75 participants including 49 IEEE members.

Professor Dr. Celia Shahnaz, Chair of IEEE Bangladesh Section welcomed everyone and initiated the session by introducing the distinguished lecturer for the day, Dr. Sandip Chanda, Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering and Technology, India.

In this webinar, Dr. Sandip Chanda mentioned how COVID-19 has affected the average demand and generation of power in different countries specially in India. During March, April and May Maximum demand for electricity has drastically changed. He also suggested some techniques through which these demand fluctuations can be handled. He suggested the use of a proper demand response program to shift the load to peak periods, generation rescheduling within a short span of time and promotions of renewables with battery banks. He also mentioned statistical data that shows the decrease of average generation from coal-based energy sources is about 25%. So, coal prices may increase due to less excavation hence proper planning after lockdown will be required. Solutions suggested here included recovery of industry at the earliest, extra emphasis on small capacity addition first, promotion of deregulation in distribution in small capacity and promotion of renewable energy sources.

The decrease in power demand caused a decrease in the frequency/speed, and hence an inertia problem. For solving inertia problems, steps like using AFC devices, increasing tie-lines power flow and increasing local generation was suggested. The webinar further discussed the set-backs noticed for planned reforms, such as – real time operations implementations, solar and wind projects implementation as the lack of revenue and manpower etc.

After the presentation, a Q&A session followed where participants asked a lot of meaningful questions on the matter and the speaker answered their questions. Prof. Dr. Shaikh Fattah, Advisor of IEEE PES BUET Student Branch Chapter conducted a quiz on the webinar topic and announced the names of the quiz winners. The webinar ended with a note of thanks by Dr. Celia Shahnaz.

SAIKAT CHOWDHURY
Chair, IEEE PES BUET Student Branch Chapter (SBC98601C)