CC BP SO DecisionMaking

7/30/2019 CC BP SO DecisionMaking

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Participative Decision-making through Web Group and Video Conference

Indian grid is demarcated into five regional grids for ease of management and

control. Each region has a Regional Load Despatch Centre (RLDCs) which is

responsible for secure, reliable, economic and efficient operation of the grid. The

National Load Despatch Centre coordinates between the five RLDCs. There is a

Corporate System Operation Department to oversee functioning of the

NLDC/RLDCs and also to bring convergence among them in terms of system

operation, market operation, future strategy, implementation of regulations

directions, response to stakeholders and management of external environment.

Obviously this demands fast and reliable information exchange among large

number of engineers working at various control centres located in different

geographical locations. Telephonic conversation, fax messages, letters, note-

sheets and physical meetings have been conventionally used for this purpose.

However these methods have limitations when the opinion of a large number of

engineers has to be taken on a common issue without loss of time or without

misinterpretation. The article elaborates the deployment of Web Group and video

conferencing in overcoming the limitations of the conventional.

A web group is an electronic space where people with shared interest meet

virtually, get to know each other and stay informed. It gives its members instant

access to shared message archives, photos and photo albums, group event

calendars, member polls and shared links. Message posted on the web group by

one member is broadcasted to all the other members. The other members canrespond to that message which shall again get broadcasted to the others.

Nowadays this utility is available in most of the popular email service providers

such as YAHOO, GOOGLE and HOTMAIL. Web groups with limited features can

be easily created and hosted free of charge.

The NLDC/RLDCs and Corporate System Operation department are equipped

with broadband connection for Internet access. Taking advantage of the above

facility, four web groups were created by the end of year 2006 to facilitate

interaction on topics related to System Operation, Supervisory Control & DataAcquisition (SCADA), Metering & Settlement and Open Access. The URL of

these web groups are given in the table below:


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S No. Focus Area Web group URL

1 System

Operation

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RLDCs_SystemOperation_India

2 SCADA http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/scada_power_system/

3 Metering &

Settlement

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/meteringsetllement/

4 Open Access http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/open_access/links

5 Open Access http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/open_access/links

The web group has more than 100 members from Regional Load Despatch

Centres, National Load Despatch Centre and Corporate System Operation

Department of POWERGRID. By the end of December 2008, more than 2700

messages had been exchanged on the web group. The web group helps in

broadcasting the views and counterviews of the participating members on thetopic of discussion. Most of the time acceptable solutions are found. However if

convergence is not achieved the topic is flagged for video conference. The

agenda for video conferences is posted on the web group and the conference is

open for participation by all those who are interested. The Minutes of video

conference and the decisions taken are again shared on the web group. This

multi-stage process leads to pooling of best of ideas and participative decision

making. The other advantages for the organization are listed below:

Bridging geographical distance

Considerable saving in timeHuge saving in paper-work

Huge savings in travel expenses

Open and exhaustive discussion on problems

Pooling and cross fertilization of concepts and ideas

Quick dissemination of information

Sharing of technical literature, data, experience

Transparent and participative decision making

Harmonization of operation and planning strategy

Development of consistency in approach by all RLDCs/NLDCInternal audit before disclosure to stakeholders

Creation of archives of shared messages

Documentation of best practices

Knowledge Management

Networking of engineers

Development of written communication skills of engineers


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A summary of the number of messages exchanged through the web group and

the number of video conferences held is enclosed.

Web group and video conferences have brought about a cultural change in

NLDC/RLDCs and the Corporate System Operation department. Employees now

feel an integral part of the process. The stakeholders have also started realizing

its advantages. There is now a visible change in the approach to policy and

regulation making by Electricity Regulatory Commission, Central Electricity

Authority and Ministry of Power. Earlier these bodies used to simply bring out

draft rules and we would give our comments. It was more in the nature of a

reaction and 'adversarial'. Further there was a general feeling on whether it was

an individual view or the 'considered view of the organization'. We have come a

long way since then. We now have two levels of participation. At the first stage of

run-up to the draft regulations,, periodic feedback provided from

RLDCs/Corporate SO to the CERC/CEA ensures that the draft regulations meet

the basic test of enhancing system reliability, promoting economy and efficiency,

fair and equitable to all as well as ease of implementation. Once the draft

regulations are published, we get one more opportunity to respond.

The ultimate decision might be any but the process of decision making,

the arguments advanced for and against any alternative and the final decision

arrived at in a transparent manner is a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all

executives. It helps in all the public interaction RLDC executives have with theoutside world. In the regulatory era one gradually realizes that not everything can

be completely black and white but there are shades of grey which needs to be

understood and appreciated. All this gives huge confidence to the stakeholders

and internal management.


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Figure 1: Messages exchanged on Web group

All Webgroups

0

50

100

150

200

250

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

NumberofMessages

2006 2007 2008

Nearly 2730 email messages exchangedamong 216 members across

6 RLDCs/ NLDC & Corporate System Operation

department

Figure 2: Cumulative number of messages exchanged

Cumulative number of messages exchanged on all web groups

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Jul-0

6

Aug-06

Sep-06

Oct-0

6

Nov-06

Dec-06

Jan-07

Feb-

07

Mar

-07

Apr-07

May

-07

Jun-07

Jul-07

Aug-07

Sep-07

Oct-07

Nov-07

Dec-07

Jan-08

Feb-

08

Mar

-08

Apr-0

8

May

-08

Jun-08

Jul-0

8

Aug-08

Sep-08

Oct-0

8

Nov-08

Dec-08

Month

Number


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Video Conferences held

2007 2008 2009

V.C. No. Date V.C. No. Date V.C. No. Date

1/2007 09-Mar-07 1/2008 23-Jan-08 1/2009 27-Jan-092/2007 20-Mar-07 2/2008 29-Feb-08 2/2009 04-Mar-09

3/2007 23-Mar-07 3/2008 13-Mar-08 3/2009 05-Mar-09

4/2007 28-Mar-07 4/2008 02-Apr-08

5/2007 19-April-07 5/2008 07-May-08

6/2007 14-May-07 6/2008 08-May-08

7/2007 23-May-07 7/2008 02-Jun-08

8/2007 24-May-07 8/2008 09-Jun-08

9/2007 09-July-07 9/2008 15-July-08

10/2007 25-July-07 10/2008 27-Aug-08

11/2007 01-Aug-07 11/2008 04-Sept-08

12/2007 22-Aug-07 12/2008 18-Sept-0813/2007 18-Sept-07 13/2008 20-Oct-08

14/2007 10-Oct-07 14/2008 06-Nov-08

15/2007 07-Nov-07 15/2008 12-Nov-08

16/2007 23-Nov-07 16/2008 26-Dec-08

17/2007 31-Dec-07

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