Bangalore, May 20, 2015 – Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) today announced that  they  have successfully  implemented the first ever Automated Demand Response (ADR) project for commercial and industrial facilities in India. TPDDL will use Honeywell technology and services to link more than 160 buildings in its distribution network, and call for temporary reductions in energy use when demand threatens to outpace supply in grid stress conditions. This includes power management during periods of peak consumption, as well as other grid emergency situations. ADR gives the grid operator a new domestic resource to help alleviate stress on transmission and distribution lines, and improve supply efficiency.

Given the gap between the power required for homes and businesses in India, and what utilities can produce, many cities across the country face severe brownouts and blackouts. The demand for electricity in Delhi, for example, has almost doubled over the past decade.

With nearly 50 percent of the country’s peak load tied to commercial and industrial sites,
the ability to adjust related energy use is critical. Grid operators like TPDDL can use ADR to help reduce peak load in a facility by 15 percent on average, creating a “virtual power plant” that generates “megawatts” or reduced demand.

The project will give TPDDL the ability to reduce approximately 11.5 megawatts of peak demand. However, if the same technology were deployed in all buildings in India, electricity consumption could drop an estimated 10.5 gigawatts, close to 7 percent of the peak energy currently required nationwide.

“This is a significant initiative — one that supports our mission to build a resource-efficient, environmentally friendly electrical grid,” said Mr. Praveer Sinha, CEO & ED of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited. “We are committed to making this deployment a success, and finding new opportunities to extend ADR to other customers, thus playing a role in helping to meet Delhi’s energy needs. We believe our steps in this direction will also encourage other Indian utilities to adopt smart grid technology for efficient operations.”

High-end commercial and industrial consumers in the TPDDL territory with individual connected load of more than 100 Kilo Volt Amps (kVA) volunteered for the project. As they signed up, Honeywell and TPDDL conducted site audits, and worked with the building owners and operators to identify and implement changes to help temporarily trim consumption. Conservation measures include turning off commercial and industrial loads like banks of motors, pumps, fans and condensers for a short period.

TPDDL is using Honeywell’s software as a service (SaaS) and smart
meters to communicate with the building systems at the participating sites, and automatically apply the load-shed measures when the grid is overburdened.

By participating, commercial and industrial customers can cut their energy use and costs without compromising operations. The collective decrease in consumption gives the grid operator more tools to balance supply and demand, and help avoid power disruptions.

In addition, ADR helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the need to run expensive peaking plants, which typically sit idle until customers require more electricity than the utility is able to provide using its primary, base-load generators.

“TPDDL is steering the country toward a smarter, more dynamic electrical grid where utilities and their customers collaborate to solve broad challenges,” said Anant Maheshwari, president, Honeywell India. “This project will help support the development and expansion of smart grid solutions in India. Honeywell is also committed to providing a simplified ADR solution for companies with less of a connected load to boost participation,” he added.

Honeywell is a pioneer and leader in ADR with 20 programs underway in the United States and around the world, including groundbreaking projects in Australia, China, India and the U.K. In addition, Honeywell has managed demand response and energy efficiency programs for more than 100 utilities. With controls in more than 150 million homes, 10 million buildings and thousands of industrial sites across the globe, Honeywell has the technology and expertise to empower smart energy producers and users.

TPDDL has also successfully demonstrated the ADR-enabled smart grid solution at the India Smart Grid Week 2015 conference in March. The company is also a pioneer in adoption and implementation of other smart grid technologies like SCADA, AMR, DMS, DA, SAP, GIS, OMS and AMI.

For more information, visit honeywellsmartgrid.com or follow Honeywell Grid on Twitter.