SWOT Analysis of Distribution System in India: A Transition from Passive to Active

India’s power system has been transiting towards a more decentralized operation with the deregulation being main driving force behind it. Apart from this, the adoption of renewable energy sources, reduction in aggregate losses, and growing energy access are some of the other driving factors. To support this, a lot of transformations needed to be done in the distribution sector to enhance energy efficiency, and maintain network security. A wide variety of distributed generation (DG) sources are needed to be integrated. Integrating, DG units in the distribution systems requires in-depth planning apart from the implementation of communication, active energy management, real-time monitoring, and distribution system (DS) automation. The application will create a need to transition from a passive distribution system (PDS) into active distribution systems (ADS). With an objective to create a strategic planning framework for this transition, this research presents a SWOT analysis to evaluate and compare both ADS and PDS highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to completely understand the present situation and future development needs of the distribution system for integration of the DG unit as well as the Renewable energy sources. This will help in evaluating the system’s internal and external competitive advantages of ADS over PDS at the same time prioritizing the opportunities that an ADS provides.