Utilities for equitable load regulation to tide over power crisis

With the prevailing acute power shortfall in Orissa set to continue till July 2010, the power distribution companies have suggested for load regulation in various feeders.

“The distribution utilities have suggested that all the 11 KV feeders except the feeders supplying to the essential service loads are to be divided into five groups. Each group of feeders is to be regulated for one hour each in the morning and evening peak hours, as an exercise of equitable power regulation”, said B K Misra, member Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

He was speaking at a workshop on Tariff Setting Vis-a-Vis Sustainable Development in Orissa, organized by OERC.

Presently, Orissa is facing a peak power shortage of 900 MW during the evening peak hours (5 pm to 10 pm), 700 MW during the morning peak hours (6 am to 10 am) and 200 MW in the remaining 15 hours.

Besides power regulation, there is a need to streamline demand side management (DSM) measures to tide over the power crisis, said Misra.

He pointed out that all the four distribution companies in Orissa- Cesu, Nesco, Southco and Wesco need to adopt the Bachat Lamp Yojana (BLY) of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Government of India.

An analysis of the BLY scheme in Orissa shows that there will be less drawl of about 400 MW during the evening hours from the state grid and this will help the state to reduce its evening peak power shortage by about 40 per cent.

BLY, a CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) based CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) is an innovative initiative put in place by the Centre to enhance the lighting efficiency in the Indian households by making CFLs available at a price comparable to the incandescent lamps.

The other notable DSM measure, Misra suggested, is to save power through installation of reactive compensation. “As per a study, the installation of reactive compensation of 275 MVAR (Mega Volt Ampere Reactive) at some selected 132 and 133 KV Grid substations will save about 247.5 MW of power. Orissa Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL), the state's transmission utility should accord topmost priority to this measure”, he stated.