IBM today announced that it has signed a research collaboration agreement with IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur to develop systems that will help power grids become more efficient and resilient.

"The systems will analyse power grid data for predictive insights. They will also improve grids to enhance productivity and reduce inefficiencies in power consumption", according to a statement released by IBM.

IBM Research (India) would work with these two premier institutes to develop open system designs that can boost the potential of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU), a new type of sensor on power grids, the statement added.

The IBM researchers and the students would develop network architectures to reliably collect data from PMUs as well as analytics tools that process the collected data to provide valuable information to the grid operators.

The knowledge and insights gained from this collaborative research work would be made publicly available to allow governments and businesses around the world take advantage of the PMU technology, it said.