Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala’s high population density, besides its obvious disadvantages, has certain hidden costs. It prevents KSEB Limited from reducing its transmission and distribution losses.
The Board has done well to reduce T&D loss to just below 14 percent; 13.90 percent for 2016-17. But further loss reduction can be achieved only by earning public wrath, by improving the high tension/low tension (HT-LT) ratio of the state’s power system. (The T&D loss for providing supply at HT level is 5.5 percent, and loss at LT level is 11.76 percent.) As it stands, the state’s HT-LT ratio is 1:6, one of the highest in the country. Bringing down the ratio would mean the construction of more high tension (HT) lines.
But HT lines, unlike the LT ones, have a ‘Vamana-like’ quality. It usurps land. “An 11 kV HT line will need a way clearance of at least 4 metres. It is more in the case of higher voltage lines,” a senior KSEBL engineer in the transmission wing said. Construction of 11 kV HT lines of 1,75,000 km, therefore, will require over 70,000 hectares.
There is already huge public resistance against plans to construct HT lines and procure land for installing substations and transformer points. KSEBL, for instance, had to find an alternative route to secure its share from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant after local opposition in Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam districts had indefinitely prolonged the completion of the power highway from Thirunelveli to Madakkathara in Thrissur.
Higher HT-LT ratio is the best scientific solution to reduce T&D losses. “The losses for a given quantum of power supplied by a line are inversely proportional to the square of its operating voltage. Higher the operating voltage, lower will be the line losses,” a top KSEBL engineer said. The value of HT losses, which was in the range of 6.90-7.60 percent in 2012, has been brought down to 5.5 percent. LT losses, on the other hand, have remained stagnant near 12 percent for over five years.
