PUDUCHERRY: To end Puducherry’s power woes due to infrastructural deficiencies, the UT government has submitted `700-crore proposal to the Ministry of Power, for its approval.
When various neighbouring States reel under power shortage, there is no power deficiency in Puducherry. Even then frequent power cuts are the order of day and night due to tripping of lines, cables and transformers, inorder to reduce load.
Currently, the peak power demand is 420 MW, while the average power drawn is 432 MW (330 MW from Neyveli, 55 MW from Tamil Nadu grid, 32 MW from Power plant at Karaikal and 6 MW from Kerala grid).
“After a survey of the power infrastructure, the government had prepared the proposal to strengthen the transmission and distribution system by availing of a loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-India,” Power Minister T Thiagarajan told Express in an exclusive interview.
JICA-India has been extending financial assistance for India’s development programme over six decades. The proposal was submitted, just before the Model Code of Conduct for Lok Sabha elections came into effect and would be pursued now, he added.
“By availing of the loan, the infrastructure would be strengthened in a period of five years. The repayment is over a period of 10 years with low interest of two per cent,” said Thiagarajan.
“The HT, LT lines, the power and distribution transformers, cables, poles and metres are over 25 years old and often fails. Besides, to withstand the load due to rising needs of power, new sub-stations, transformers, lines are also required. Around 500 new power and distribution transformers as well as 1,700 small transformers for distribution in domestic connection would be acquired. Currently, around 80 per cent of the transformers are overloaded,” said the Minister.
Besides, to connect Karaikal region with Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), a new line and 230/110 KV sub-station has been planned. Another five new 110/22 KV Sub-stations have been planned at Thavalakuppam, Lawspet, Thirubuvanai, Vilianur and Vanjoor. In Bahour, the two 80 KV transformers would be replaced by 100KV transformers, he said.
All the worn-out cables would be replaced, which will bring down the line loss from 12.5 to 9.2, said Thiagrajan. Besides this, all meters would be replaced with smart metres, he added.