At India Smart Grid Week: Ingenious Contests for App-ing, Hacking & IT Enthusiasts to Promote Secure and Innovative Grids

New Delhi, March 7, 2016: If you are an IT student or cyber enthusiast who loves to delve into applications, have a knack for hacking into systems or developing ‘smart’ digitally enabled solutions for daily problems, the Indian Smart Grid Week is the place for you to be!

India Smart Grid Week (ISGW) 2016 is the second edition of the Conference cum Exhibition on Smart Grids and Smart Cities organized by India Smart Grid Forum from 15-19 March, 2016 at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi. The event will bring together a confluence of experts in the field of electricity, IT communications and smart cities to discuss the challenges and opportunities and build support towards establishing smart grids in India.

For cyber enthusiasts who are not too interested in policy but in technological solutions to strengthening the power systems in India, the week-long congregation offers a unique opportunity to participate in some never seen before contests and showcase your innovative capabilities in developing softwares, hardwares, apps or hacking into power grid systems.

“The India Smart Grid Week is a brainstorming forum aimed at encouraging fruitful discussions and solutions to India’s energy problems and how smart grids can help improve supply, reduce leakages and better delivery of quality power. Smart Grid technologies can play an essential role in ensuring power quality and reliable electricity supply. At India Smart Grid Forum, we believe in involving not just policymakers and corporate leaders in the discussions regarding smart grid technologies but also common Indians and innovation enthusiasts. The idea is to take the Smart Grid discussion to the common citizens. The innovative contests aim to involve students, researchers and other smart technology enthusiasts into the larger discussion,” says Mr Reji Kumar Pillai ,President India Smart Grid Forum.

The contests that offer significant prize money to winners are open for participation to students and researchers in the field as well as other cyber enthusiasts who might have innovative ideas and solutions to offer to policymakers.

The contests will include a Hackathon: securing the Grid (March 16-17) in partnership with National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Center (NCIIPC), Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) as part of the India Smart Grid Week (ISGW) 2016. Security is a key part of today’s power systems and infrastructure assets. The increasing dependence between physical assets and the cyber assets has prompted electric utilities to build resiliency and robustness into their grids. The Hackathon contest is aimed at promoting security and minimizing possibilities of hacking of electrical grids.

Hackathon is an ideal platform where students, researchers and technology enthusiasts can participate and they would be required to hack into a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and toggle a switch before exiting the system. The winner will get Rs. 2,00,000 and Certificate for Championing the event. There are second, third and five consolation prizes totaling Rs. 4.5 lakhs.

The Appathon: App Development for Smart Grids & Smart Cities (March 11-13th at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology NSIT, Delhi) will require participants to create a smart phone App that will be useful for electric, water and gas utilities and their customers, smart city administration, transport, security, health, sanitation, education etc.

The Innothon: Innovating the Grid (March 11-13 at NSIT) will require participants to develop and display some innovative concepts for smart grids through software tools, concept notes or hardware models.

The Appathon and Innothon will be conducted by India Smart Grid Forum and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL).