Efforts to ensure quality power supply to Hyderabad

By M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD, MAY 15. A brighter future on the power front is in the offing for Hyderabad, thanks to the Chief Minister's latest obsession with Singapore. A concerted effort is on for the first time to standardise the transmission and distribution system, taking the cue from the island-nation, for ensuring assured and quality power supply to the city which is racing against time to cope with the ever growing demand.

Under a programme inspired by Singapore, which the Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, visited and later at his instance, the MCH Commissioner, Dr P. K. Mohanty, conventional short-statured posts of eight-metre height are being replaced by 12.5-metre tall and rust-free spun poles which, being resistant to gales and storms, can bear 33-KV and 11-KV lines simultaneously apart from cable TV strings without needing a staywire support and promise a better "flood effect" of streetlights and keep the network free from latent obstructions like trees.

Also, a central lighting system has been adopted as an ideal with high-rise tabular poles, having twin lights on the top, being already installed by Phillips India, contractors for the work, in alignment with the road-dividers on all the important arteries and widened roads such as NTR Marg and the one linking Greenlands with Ameerpet.

As an added benefit, the age-old mercury vapour and sodium vapour lamps are being substituted with energy-saving metal hellaid lights for which the company has given guaranteed lifespan of five years.

There has been a great improvement in voltage in the city and its environs after execution of a 400-KV sub-station at Mamidipalli near the city which, along with another sub-station of the same capacity at Ghanapur owned by NTPC, are pumping power at high capacity into Hyderabad's string of five 220-KV sub-stations at Malkaram, Shapur Nagar, Gachi Bowli, Chandrayangutta and Moulali and about 100 sub-stations of 132-KV and 33/11 KV capacities. All of them are connected with generation giants like AP Genco's Srisailam, Vijayawada and Kothagudem plants and the Ramagundam complex of NTPC. The supply, apart from being qualitative, is uninterrupted as it is drawn from another source if one plant breaks down.

The APCPDCL has taken up a phased underground cabling scheme to enable the system to withstand cyclones, floods and gales. Already, the work has been completed to the extent of 100 km connecting Erragadda, Greenlands, Hussainsagar, Hyderguda, Sultan Bazar, Exhibition Grounds, Imbliban, etc. The widening of roads left these lines in the middle and currently they are being shifted to margins.

The requirement of Hyderabad and its environs together with their industries has been estimated at around 1,000 MW. The Government sometime ago planned a dedicated 650-MW capacity plant to be set up by the NTPC at Shankarpalli in Ranga Reddy district but this did not come through as the cost of the contemplated fuel, naphtha, turned out to be prohibitive by the time the project reached the implementation stage. Its fate hangs in balance today even with 350 acre of lands put at the disposal of the AP Generation Corporation. However, Mr R. S. Sharma, NTPC Executive Director, says the project has not been given up and that alternative fuels are being considered.

A number of steps have been taken up to avoid interruptions. A Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition station, the first such facility in the country, has just been set up at Erragadda connected with all the sub-stations and feeders in the Twin Cities by fibreoptic lines, to locate faults during breakdowns for immediate rectification. It is being inaugurated by the Chief Minister shortly. Recently, a consumer grievance-redressal mechanism was established with the launching of a computer-aided counter available on phone No 1912 which gives out time-limit for rectification after registering the complaint and a Lok Adalat to resolve the disputes that may crop up between the supplier and the consumer regarding bill amounts, etc.

According to Mr Gandhi, new meters have been installed for 2.5 lakh out of the 8.81 lakh services in the city which were old, faulty or had got burnt. The improvements to the system, the special drive against theft and erection of new meters have brought down the line losses to 34.02 per cent from 41.01 per cent earlier and pushed up the billed amounts without increase in output supplied. The revenue demand for the city has gone up to Rs 758.87 crores this year from Rs 608.8 crores last year, an increase of 24.63 per cent.

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