Admitting poor power supply scenario in Ranchi and other parts of the State, the Energy Department has blamed inclement weather, shortage of qualified manpower, old and inadequate infrastructure for prolonged disruptions.
Energy Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni at the same time assured of better situation ahead citing ‘work in progress’ on all the three fronts into the crucial sector.
“It is there but we have to look into facts that lengths of grids are too long, transmission lines are old and manpower is inadequate. We have started working on new grids and lines and situation is sure to be better. At present, rain has aggravated the situation,” said Kulkarni on Wednesday, adding that nine grid substations have been erected since March 2014 while T&D losses brought down from 41 per cent to 29 per cent presently.
He also tried to defend complaints flooding in about power cuts, saying that as many as 36 feeders have developed snags due to continuous rains in different parts of the State.
“This is a transition phase and we have to bear with it for some more time. We have set some ambitious goals such as declaring Ramgarh, Jamtara, Dhanbad, Bokaro, lohardaga and Koderma completely electrified in true sense by December, 2017. Every household of these districts would be connected with power supply line with metering. In last one and half years, out of 2525 un-electrified villages we have reached to 2020 villages till date and 206 of the rest 505 would be connected by September this year. Other 243 villages would be given off-grid connectivity due to physical barriers,” added the Secretary.
Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam limited (JBVNl) Managing Director Rahul Purwar, on the occasion, clarified that the Government was also working in a big way to harness renewable sources, especially solar power.
“This year we have targeted to install rooftop solar power units at over 1000 government buildings covering all courts, police stations, hospitals, KGVBs etc. We are also working on a plan where building plans for apartments etc are passed only after having provision for solar rooftop units. For individual households, we have launched ‘Aha Solar’ app through which anyone can produce, use and even sell additional power to JBVNl,” said Purwar. Renovation of shutdown PTPS was also at advanced stage by NTPC and foundation lying is expected next month.
The Secretary nevertheless mentioned about some lacuna in the policy which is obstructing solar parks to become a reality in the State. “We may have to switch to smaller solar parks where less land is required since it is difficult to find out such a big chunk of land for setting up 500 MW plant or so at one stretch. We cannot compare states like Rajasthan with Jharkhand in terms of availability of land and also intensity of solar rays,” said Kulkarni.
Meanwhile, Purwar said that the JBVNl is going to reintroduce the facility, aimed to distribute and replace two crore more such lamps. “From August, the facility is going to restart as the new agency has been appointed by EESl. Villages and blocks are going to be targeted in this phase,” said Purwar.
He also said that a completely new billing system is going to give way to existing one where all the consumers of the State would be brought on a single platform. “Now consumers can generate their power bills online and pay. A centralised system coming from August,” said the MD.