Odisha needs nearly Rs 26,000 crore for a resilient power infrastructure of world-class standard that would sustain the brunt of any natural disasters.
With the State facing repeated natural disasters like floods, cyclones and storms, the biggest damage is happening to the power infrastructure and in order to make it a foolproof system, the requirement of funds will be Rs 25,920 crore.
International experts have come to this estimate as a long term measure, which will help the State in time of crisis as the power system fails during the disasters.
The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations have joined hands to go for a detailed analysis of the requirement of the State.
The idea of power resilient system for the coastal States has also caught the imagination of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Fani ravaged State recently.
Prime Minister Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat had faced similar situation earlier and he was impressed with such an idea.
With this much of funding the complete power system will be using ‘underground cable’ (UGC) network for distribution of power, opined experts of the international organizations.
According to the estimates, due to super storm Fani, power infrastructure sustained damage of Rs 8,139 crore and losses of Rs 254 crore.
The damages include, 400 KV lines and substations, 33/11 KV substations and lines, 11 KV lines, 11KV/415 V transformers and 415 V lines.
Due to damage of 11 KV lines, the loss was highest of Rs 3,968 crore and 415 V lines damage cost the State with Rs 2,053 crore.
Similarly, 33/11 KV substations and lines damage went up to Rs 1,058 crore and 11 KV/415 V transformers damage is pegged at Rs 966 crore loss.
So far revenue loss is concerned, to be very specific, power distribution companies (DISCOM)s sustained revenue loss of Rs 250 crore and meter readers lost in earning around Rs 4 crore; so the revenue loss is Rs 254 crore.
Experts estimated that if the existing system with improved specification the power sector needs Rs 9, 747 crore for recovery and this is option one.
Option two says that with existing system using spun poles and H-Poles and improved specifications the cost will be around Rs 11,356 crore.
However for a fool proof resilient power system, the State needs Rs 25,920 crore, which is the third option, suggested the international experts.
Resilience can be ensured if span length between poles is reduced and upgradation of the present radial network to ring main system will ensure redundancy in power supply.
Most importantly identification of the most vulnerable areas and critical installations and ensuring investment in resilient infrastructure at the earliest to be taken up in a planned manner, said the international experts.