The UT Electricity Department, which caters to the needs of about 2 lakh consumers, is functioning sans the post of a Chief Engineer and only one Superintending Engineer looks after the whole Department.
A study conducted on the directions of Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) on manpower requirement in Chandigarh Electricity Department (CED), has pointed out that the CED has 961 employees against the total sanctioned strength of 1,668.
The study has proposed creation of 1,394 new posts that is required for CED in immediate term. In group A posts in Chandigarh Electricity Department, creation of post of one chief engineer, three superintending engineers, 10 executive engineers among others have been proposed. And, creation of 184 posts of junior engineers in group B and 1,151 posts in group C has been proposed in the study.
At present, the CED has only one sanctioned post of Superintending Engineer and five sanctioned posts of Executive engineers.
Notably, CED’s existing structure and setup has remained unchanged since its inception (1967) and the last sanction for officer level manpower was provided in the year 1992.
The report pointed out that while the structure and manpower has remained the same over the last 20 years, CED has witnessed significant growth on the following parameters which included load growth (approximately 3 times growth) and number of connections (approximately 80% growth)
The UT Electricity Department is today facing issues on both commercial and power supply fronts. The existing AT&C loss stands at 20 per cent which is high in comparison to utilities in cities with similar consumer profile. Also, on a daily basis a sub-division has to manage, on an average, 30-40 supply related complaints,” stated the report, which has been submitted to Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The study has stated that the existing manpower at sub-division office has to play the twin role of managing customer expectations and running smooth operations of transmission and distribution network. lack of preventive maintenance adds further complication to this issue.
For an effective functioning of CED, it has been proposed that a separate function focusing on monitoring the operational and financial performance of the Department is established at the Circle level with direct reporting to the CE. Also, an Asset Management Cell is established to monitor Asset performance and taking remedial initiatives.
The study has also proposed a separate Power Controller complement for conducting power flow studies, load scheduling and ensuring efficient utilization of network and avoidance of network unbalancing/overloading.
Also, a Testing and Protection complement is proposed to conduct analysis of daily tripping's at grid stations, recommending remedial solutions and follow up testing.
The JERC will hear the petition filed by CED regarding the manpower requirement in the Department on June 24.
While talking to The Pioneer, MP Singh, UT Superintending Engineer (Electricity wing) said, “The UT Electricity Department has submitted the study of manpower requirement in immediate term and in the future. The hearing for the same will be held on June 24.”