Despite the fact that the State Government has launched round the clock power in Bhopal under the Atal Jyoti scheme, the State electricity board officials feel that continuous power supply round the clock is not possible as technical faults take place due to thefts and harsh weather conditions.
General Manager of the Madhya Pradesh central zone distribution company Anil Khatri told The Pioneer that it is very difficult for the employees involved in the maintenance to work in the harsh weather condition. It involves high risk but still the technician work has to continue round the clock to ensure uninterrupted supply.
A tree fell in the industrial area on Monday having a huge honeycomb and to remove the tree the honeycomb had to be removed first to cut the tree and after several calls made to the pesticide company they turned after 8 hours which delayed the process for several hours.
But these problems are not addressed properly and not communicated to the people so that they could make a better understanding about the technical difficulties faced by the department, told an MPSEB technician.
The maintenance department faces numerous problems, the hoarding near the power supply lines posse potential risk to the commuters and interrupts power supply.
Recently, the railways have rented a hoarding space near Habibganj railway station which has been erected very close to the power supply line and has interrupted the power supply few times.
Informing about other hurdles, Khatri further said that the other major problem faced by the power distribution company is the power theft. The distribution companies are also reeling under pressure to curb the losses which is around 30 per cent. The figure includes the Transmission and distribution losses and thefts. Only 5-7 percent of the total losses are technical losses while the remaining is contributed by power thefts.
Many of the feeders in the city have losses mounting up to 70percent. Chandbad, Ashoka Garden, Chola Mandir, Karond and Pul Bogdha are the feeders which are reporting losses around 65-70 per cent. Notably, the city is divided into around 22 divisions and the worst performing divisions are Chandbad, Karond, Chola Mandir and Ashoka Garden.
The four broadly divided regions of the city reported losses are North 47.78 per cent, South 29.71 per cent, East 47.69 per cent and West 16.35 percent.
There are several steps taken by the company to curb the power thefts. The armored cable, capacitor bank and service bank are established. The distribution companies have reduced the power thefts by around 5 per cent in past couple of years.