Several new dimensions have been set up in the power sector in the financial year 2018-19 in the State. This year, the maximum supply of electricity was 2658.69 lakh units in a day and the maximum demand of 14089 Mega Watt was supplied on January 5, 2019 which is the highest in the state so far.
Energy Minister Priyavrat Singh informed that 'Indira Griha Jyoti Yojana' was implemented while incorporating the Saral Bijli Bill Scheme from the billing cycle starting on February 25 and thereafter for domestic use of registered workers and construction workers in the state. Under the Plan, the eligible consumers are being given a maximum bill of Rs 100 on monthly consumption up to 100 units.
The government has implemented the 'Indira Kisan Jyoti Yojna' for agricultural consumers. It has been decided to supply power to permanent agricultural pump connections of up to 10 Horse Power at the flat rate of Rs 700 per HP instead of Rs 1400 per HP. In addition to this, permanent pump connections with metre up to 10 horse power and temporary agricultural pump connections have also been given a concession of 50 percent in the energy charge payable in the past.
All 19.84 lakh houses without electricity connections in the state have been electrified till December 2018 under Soubhagya Yojana.
State government is providing free electricity to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe farmers for agricultural pumps of upto 5 Horse Power with one hectare land and to BPL domestic consumers of this category up to 25 units.
An additional capacity of 1,75,655 KVA has been created by increasing capacity of 4637 distribution transformers till March, 2019 in the year 2018-19.
In addition to this, by installing 1,15,184 additional distribution transformers, total capacity of 36.41 lakh KVA was increased.
Under power system strengthening 191 sub-stations of 33/11 KV, 1783 kilometers line of 33 KV, 23,617 kilometers of 11 KV and low-pressure line cable has been converted into 18,152 kilometers.
This will improve the quality of power supply.
Compared to last year there has been considerable improvement in terms of declared and undeclared power shutdown.
The number of declared shutdowns in big cities has decreased by about two and a half thousand compared to 2018, where 2761 declared shutdowns were made in May, 2019, there were 5,331 declared shut downs in 2018 in the 8 major cities of the state including Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Ujjain, Jabalpur, Sagar, Rewa and Shahdol.
Not only this, there has been a significant decrease in power repair/ maintenance time during shutdown with better management. During 2018, it took an average of 3 to 9 hours for maintenance which has been reduced to 2 to 4 hours now.