Chhattisgarh is making all out efforts to provide access to electricity in all left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected villages of the State by March 2018, Government officials informed here on Saturday.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among two other States mainly Maharashtra and Telangana which had promised to complete electrification in all lWE affected villages by March 2018.
As per the officials, the Chhattisgarh Government has targeted to spend `5,036 crore for augmenting rural electrification and energy distribution system.
Notably, the power supply distribution augmentation system project would be funded by Central Government grant, equity contribution from State and loan from financial institutions.
The State-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company ltd (CSPDCl) which is implementing the project has sought additional funding support from the Central Government for achieving 100 per cent electrification of villages in Bastar region by March 2018.
The special scheme would require additional funding support of `665 crores of additional investment from the work carried out under Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana, officials informed.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh has recently reviewed works of Energy Department and issued directives to complete construction of 34 key power sub-stations in various districts of State including tribal stronghold Bastar and Surguja divisions within 18 months.
The construction cost of these 34 power sub-stations is estimated to be `2,100 crore.
The Chief Minister said in the meeting that keeping in view the demands and requests for electricity supply received from villagers during state-wide lok Suraaj Abhiyan, these power substations should be constructed within the time-limit on priority basis, so that quality electricity supply could be ensured in far-off rural regions.
In the meeting officials informed that two power substation of 400/220KV will be constructed in Jagdalpur and Dhamtari, eight power substations of 220/132 KV will be constructed in Rajim, Borjhara (Gariaband), Parsada, Kawardha, Dharsiva, Narayanpur, Jagdalpur and Bilaspur. likewise, 24 power substations of 132/33 KV will be constructed in Koni, Ravanbhata, Batauli, Kondatarai, Sukma, Charama, lormi, Dabra, Bakhara, Vandanapuling, Shivrinarayan, Wadrafnagar, Kansabel, Bijapur, Pakhanjur, Nagri, Indagaon, Mohla, Rajpur, Dornapal, Takhatpur, Basna, Berla, and Renki (Korba).
In the meeting, it was informed that the electrification of villages not covered under 2,685 hamlets being electrified under Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana at the cost of nearly `1,250 crore and the villages being electrified using solar energy, is in progress.
It was also informed in the meeting that till March 2015, the State had 1,080 villages without electricity, out of which 402 villagers wereelectrified in year 2015-16. In year 2016-17, target of electrification of 678 villages has been set. Against which, electrification of 80 villages has been done and that of remaining is in progress.
The Government has also targetted to electrify all the 19,000 villages in the State with solar power during the next two years.
Notably, Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) has invested `400 crores during last 11 years in developing infrastructure for solar power generation which had resulted in 40 MW of electricity being generated from non conventional energy sources.
The Chhattisgarh Government is targetting 100 per cent household electrification by financial year 2017-18.
Notably, as on March 2015, Chhattisgarh had 63.6 households withelectrification rate of 84.5 per cent, officials informed.
The State Government is attaching highest priority to power sector and is committed to provide full support to all utilities for ensuring quality power supply.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is expected to add 14,140 MW of additional power generation capacity in its thermal plants between November 2015 to March 2022, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its perspective transmission plan report prepared for 20 years ( 2014-34).
The objective of the plan is to present broad outlines of the requirement of additional transmission system in the Indian grid during the next two decades.
The National Electricity Plan is under preparation u/S 3(4) of the Electricity Act 2003. This Plan would inter-alia give generation capacity addition for period up to 2021-22 based on integrated resource planning requirements for the country.
In the absence of the generation addition programme for 13th Plan period, an estimate was made considering the ongoing and likely capacity addition for the conventional generation projects. For the renewable generation projects, as explained above, we do not have data corresponding to the 175 GW RES target, as such the modelling and analysis was carried out with only the known RE generation projects.
Major high capacity transmission corridors have already been planned and which are under implementation would be sufficient to meet import/export of power among various regions in the year 2021-22.
This is based on the assumptions of load growth and generation capacity addition as stated in the report.
Initially, the High Capacity Corridors from Chhatisgarh and Odisha were planned with reduced reliability due to uncertainties in generation addition by IPPs. The generations which were associated with these high capacity corridors are coming up in phased manner and till now no major constraint is being faced.
However, with the coming up of more generations, additional transmission strengthening may be required to meet the reliability criteria. This would be taken up with firm status of new generation projects.
The State Transmission Utilities (STU) should take up planning and implementation of their respective intra-State systems and its interconnection with ISTS matching with the schedule of implementation of various ISTS schemes.
Further high capacity transmission system would be needed for new UMPP or any high capacity generation projects. These would be planned as soon as their schedule becomes visible.
The Chhattisgarh Government announced recently that for development of power sector and strengthen infrastructure related to it, a five-year Capital Investment Plan (CIP) has been chalked out.
Under this plan, funds to tune of around `7,466 crore have been included and time duration for the visionary scheme has been fixed from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
The works for various schemes including general schemes such as Chief Minister Urban Electrification Scheme, Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana, Mukhyamantri Manjra Tola Vidhyutikaran Yojana, EITC, IT projects, civil works and others will be carried out.
Along with extension of 4,500 km-long 33 kv line, as many as 290 substations of 33/11 kv will be developed in the State.
Chhattisgarh has recorded significant rise in number of power connection holders. During the time of Chhattisgarh’s formation, the State had around 18 lakh power connection holders which is now around 42 lakh.