Tata Power’s smart‑plug demand response trial
Tata Power‑DDL rolled out internet‑connected smart plugs to control high‑energy appliances during grid stress, demonstrating a low‑cost demand‑response model utilities can replicate reported. The pilot points to practical IoT measures for managing peak load without heavy grid reinforcement.
The POWBAL trial deployed Wi‑Fi switches in over 1,000 households imperial.ac.uk and began deployments in Mumbai and Delhi from Spring 2023. powbalenergy.net Households chose which appliance to attach and about 80% connected an air‑conditioning unit to the smart switch. imperial.ac.uk Randomized, remotely‑triggered switch events produced an average household electricity demand reduction of 8%. imperial.ac.uk The study is registered in the AEA RCT registry under ID AEARCTR‑0009118. imperial.ac.uk Tata Power‑DDL has rolled out smart meters at scale — about 300,000 smart meters installed so far with approval to deploy up to 800,000 — covering a service base of roughly 2.03 million consumers. theprint.in Tata Power’s in‑house EZ HOME smart plug is a Wi‑Fi (2.4 GHz) smart relay rated for 10 A with built‑in energy monitoring and compatibility with Alexa/Google Assistant. tatapower.com After initial Delhi trials, Tata Power expanded with AutoGrid’s platform aiming to engage 55,000 residential and 6,000 large C&I customers to deliver 75 MW of peak reduction in six months and scale to 200 MW by summer 2025. prnewswire.com TPDDL’s original 2021 announcement of the behavioural demand‑response pilot specified sharing trial outcomes with the Delhi regulator (DERC) to help design incentive structures for wider rollout. tatapower-ddl.com
