KOLKATA: The Centre has invited proposals from states on setting up two-three smart grid systems in proposed smart cities in each state as part of the National Smart Grid Mission. "Every year thousands of distribution transformers catch fire in each state due to demand overload and control rooms' inability to monitor loads on each transformer. This is technologically not possible at the moment," said Reji Kumar Pillai, president of India Smart Grid Forum.Under a smart grid system power consumption of every household can be monitored on a real-time basis and it can then be controlled, helping prevent such situations, he said. India Smart Grid Forum is a body floated jointly by the power ministry and the industry. The decision to invite states was taken at a meeting held by the power ministry earlier this week.The Centre will fund 33 per cent of the cost of such projects while the rest will be borne by the states. If successfully implemented, the smart grid project will bring down disruption in power lines, reduce equipment failure and minimise distribution losses as well as illegal drawl of power. The second phase of the mission involves smart grid projects in smart cities.Under the first phase the Centre approved 14 projects. Of these, six states including Assam , Haryana, Himachal Pradesh , Punjab and Bengal have already awarded projects to respective contractors.Telangana did not find a contractor in the last two rounds of bidding and is now preparing for retendering after change of some clauses.Gujarat identified the contractor some time ago but the award was delayed. Maharashtra scrapped the previous NCP-Congress government's decision to set up pilot project at Baramati. The bids submitted for pilots in Tripura and Kerala were found three times costlier than the estimated costs. The projects will now be auctioned again.As part of the mission, India is also planning to test mas sive power storage systems.While such projects essentially involve installing large batteries that can store a few megawatts of power, it has never been tried in the country before.The United States and Europe use such batteries to store solar power. The system is used to reduce uncertainties of electricity flow in the power grid due to huge fluctuations inherent in solar power generation. Large fluctuations in power flow in the grid can collapse the grid and bring thermal power capacities to half, leading to largescale blackouts.Power Grid Corporation is preparing to award the country's first technology trial for grid connected energy storage. The project, expected to be awarded in a month, entails construction of three capacities.