The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering arranged field visit to State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC), Bangalore on 28/06/2018. The objective of this field visit was to enhance practical exposure in the field of electrical power system for UG and PG students. The accompanied faculty in-charges are Dr. Usha Surendra and Mr. Venkataswamy R and accompanied 28 students. We reached the venue at 10:30am. We acknowledge the co-operation and hospitality shown by the administrative officers in SLDC. We are thankful to Mr. Malleshappa (Executive Engineer, Control Room, SLDC) and Ms. Shilpashree (Assistant Executive Engineer, SLDC). Mr. Malleshappa explained control room and the regular activities in the center. Ms. Shilpashree explained SCADA system consisting of RTU, Communication and Control system. We would like to thank Mr. Shashidhar, AEE, KPTCL, Sakaleshpura and Mr. Ravi Asuti, AEE, KPTCL, Kunigal for their support in getting permission letter. They were with us thought the visit and explained technical aspects. Few major points understood by the audience are; Our country has five load dispatch center – Eastern region, Northern region, Western region, Southern region and North-East region. The State Load Dispatch Center (SLDC) under KPTCL is an apex body to ensure integrated operation of the power system in Karnataka. SLDC is responsible for the real time load dispatch functions, Operation and maintenance of the SCADA system and energy Accounting. The main responsibilities of SLDC are to monitor the system parameters and security,to ensure the integrated operation of the power system grid in the region and to daily schedule and operate planning. The five companies operating under SRLDC are BESCOM, HESCOM, CESC, GESCOM, MESCOM. The frequency is maintained at a range of 49.95 – 50.05 Hz. If the frequency crosses these limits either on load side or generation side whoever responsible for thema heavy penalty is imposed. They use ABT mechanism for its tariff. The whole Karnataka power supply stations are controlled by SLDC office. The maximum generation capacity is 26960MW. They have both renewable energy and non- renewable energy generation source with non-renewable being the thermal stations (6000MW) and renewable generation are hydroelectric (5000MW), wind energy (2000MW), biomass and nuclear energy. The control of SLDC is completely done using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). SCADA systems are used to monitor and control a plant or equipment in industries such as telecommunications, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining and transportation.

A SCADA system gathers information, such as where a leak on a pipeline has occurred, transfers the information back to a central site, alerting the home station that the fault has occurred, carrying out necessary analysis and control, such as determining if the fault is critical, and displaying the information in a logical and organized fashion. The interaction of the students with the facilitators was really good and students expressed their positive interest towards the subject. Faculty had meeting with the administrative officers about mutual tie-ups. We returned to the campus at 4pm with lot of hope and satisfaction.