Vikram Gour
As the mercury rises (in summer) or dips (as in winter) and the temperature exceeds 40-degrees or falls below 10- degrees, your attention is immediately diverted to the devices that can provide you some relief against the sweltering heat or freezing winter. The obvious choice is cooling devices or heating appliances to keep temperature around you within the acceptable limits of tolerance. If you are sitting idle and like to watch a TV And if you are fortunate to have any or all these gadgets you are a happy person. But unfortunately, your happiness depends on availability of electricity as all these gadgets run on Electricity and it is here that your unhappiness starts.
The supply of electricity depends on PDD, the electricity supplying agency of the government. When PDD cuts off your supply (at what time of the day), it is only they who know. Or may be even they do not know. It is only the overloaded dilapidated power distribution system that compels them to cut off power supply to save their equipment from getting damaged.
In the existing circumstances as on today it may be mentioned that not too long back the PDD would pre-inform the public about the power cuts which were as per the schedule notified through media and one remained prepared to deal with the situation in advance. But for the last couple of years there is no scheduled program of power supply prepared in advance and the shutdown is affected as and when required/forced. This obviously has tremendously increased the public inconvenience in this sweltering hot summer or freezing winter besides adversely affecting the industry, trade, commerce and normal working. Obviously, there must be some reasons for this ad-hoc, unforeseen and unscheduled power cuts/breakdowns that presently have made the life of common man miserable.
Yes, there are reasons and several reasons one can give for this unmanageable power system that follows no rule of any standard code.
The overloading of the distribution system from 33kv downwards is because of unchecked and unmetered use of power right up to the consumer level. Large scale unauthorized use of power, even by genuine consumers and almost 50% of unmetered regular connections encourage the users to go far unchecked use of free power that results in overloading the system and therefore the power cuts.
By their own admission the PDD, the transmission and distribution (T&D) losses are as high as around 72-75%. If 15-16% T&D losses are taken to be the permissible losses, the loss due to theft and misuse amounts to 57-61%. The total uncurtailed demand as on today is around 1600-MW of which PDD looses around say 60% i.e. 960-MW in theft and misuse as T&D loss. The available power to the state, as on today, is around 1100-MW. The PDD, therefore, has to impose a power cut of around 500-MW to remain within the allotted quota. A good and efficient management would chalk out systematically the power cuts required at various times and places (feeders/areas) to remain within the allotted quota and intimate the public before hand of the power cuts the situation would improve a lot. Along with this if the PDD/Government comes out with powerful media campaign for conservation and fair use of electricity through TV, Press, radio and the NGOs and inform the public about the rules and regulations governing the power supply a lot of improvement in the situation can be affected.
If we, somehow, effectively manage our power system only by 100% metering and efficient check on misuse, we will be surplus in power by at least (960-500) 460-MW. May be when theft of power is checked we may add another about 200-250-MW of genuine load to our system yet the PDD will not only be surplus in power by around (460-250) 260-MW but would also double its revenue by genuinely selling available of power. It can, therefore, be seen that oft-repeated assertion by the state government that the state is extremely deficit in power is not true. All what it requires to make ‘Deficit Power System to a Surplus system’ is that the state/PDC/PDD sincerely manages Power Sector efficiently and effectively as per the latest methodology by unbundling the Power sector into autonomous and independent entities, free it from the political control, adopt latest technology to manage this most important vital sector on which depends the all round progress of the state.
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