Mysuru: This city of palaces has become the first in the country to be equipped with a “Smart grid”, a fully automated system to monitor distribution of electricity to individual customers and facilitate uninterrupted distribution of power, reduce load shedding, and check theft of electricity.
While 14 states, including Karnataka, were chosen for the pilot project, Chamundeswari Electricity Corporation Limited has successfully implemented it since December 2016 through PPP model in association with Enzen global solution private limited. Energy minister D K Shivakumar announced successful implementation of the project here on Tuesday.
He said, “The pilot project, taken up at the cost of Rs 32.06 crores, has been implemented in VV Mohalla division of CHESCOM covering 24,532 consumers, five feeder sub stations, 14 feeders and 473 distribution transformers, for input energy of 153.63 mega units per annum. As part of the project, smart meters are being installed at each household at a cost of over Rs 10,000 (per household) and they are being monitored at centralised transformer monitoring unit at CHESCOM Office in Vijaynagar. By monitoring usage at a particular connection, they can be advised to reduce consumption and save power, instead of load-shedding. And CHESCOM could save six per cent power through implementation of the project. CHESCOM has submitted a detailed project report worth Rs 400 crores to adopt “Smart grid” system for all four connections in the city.”
He said “Karnataka has entered into an agreement with the Union energy ministry to implement UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana). As part of it “Smart grid” system must be adopted for all connections consuming upto 500 units by December 2017, and for all connections consuming upto 200 units by 2019. We are taking up the project in Hubbalii and Bengaluru. Subsequently, it will be extended to other districts.”
Mr Shivakumar said with reservoirs receiving a deficit of 38 per cent inflow, the state would witness a decline in production of hydel power this year. The government would purchase 1000 MW electricity to ensure continuous supply of electricity to farmers and industries.
