Jharkhand Bijli Vitaran Nigam (JBVNl), the State’s power utility responsible for distribution of electricity, will sign a MoU tomorrow with Aditya Birla group to the meet power deficit in Garhwa.
The group owns a captive power plant to run Aditya Birla Chemicals (India) limited, Rehla, in Palamu district and produces 60 MW power.
JBVNl Managing Director Rahul Purwar told The Pioneer that the power plant of the company, earlier known as Bihar Caustic and Chemicals ltd, requires 42 MW. “So, it has agreed to supply the rest 18 MW to Garhwa town,” he added.
“Though we can’t meet the total requirement, but we will ensure almost 24x7 power to Garhwa township area,” he pointed out.
Purwar said that very soon we will be in a position to reduce the shortfall of 180 MW in Santhal Pargana.
“We are going to lay second circuit of transmission line between Dumka and Rupnarayanpur and supply 75 MW power more to the region,” he added.
Notably, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, in July last, had inaugurated the 220/132KV grid substation - comprising two transformers of 150MW each - at Madanpur on the outskirts of Dumka town and 220KV Dumka-Rupnarayanpur transmission line – connecting the region with the national grid.
“Two more grid substations in Madhupur and Pakur are in final stage of completion and will be inaugurated within a month. Jamtara will also be getting almost 24x7 power after we install a transformer there,” he added.
The MD said that Ranchi faces the shortage of 50 MW due to transmission constraints. “We had earlier only Namkum and Hatia grids which were overloaded.
Now, the Kanke grid is functional. We have to connect Hatia grid with Kanke to streamline the power supply. By December, Tamar grid will also be functional,” he added.
“Out of 2200 MW power requirement in the State we are able to take only 1925 MW power due to transmission constraints,” he added.
Purwar said that there is no shortage of power after we signed an agreement with Power Trading Corporation for managing the power purchase from outside.
“The power supply in Palamu, except Chatarpur is almost normal after it was connected with Ranchi grid.”
Asked why there are power cuts on the slightest pretext - rain, thunder, lightning etc, Purwar said that the fault is in the distribution system. “Our protection system is not strong. Electric poles and towers are old and have not been properly erected. In many cases, quality of electrical fittings is also below the mark. So, we are in a process to float a tender for making the system robust,” he added.
Maintaining that the revenue generation has jumped to Rs 233 crore from Rs 212 crore during the last four months, he said that the billing efficiency is also poor. “People are ready to pay the bills, but we are able to create bills for only 68 percent of consumers. So, we are working on appointing new billing agency soon,” he added.
“We are also facing problem from DVC in Dhanbad region, which supplies power directly to high-tension consumers, and leave the domestic consumers for us,” he said. “We incur a loss of Rs 120 crore due to this arrangement,” he added.
The HT consumers include industrial units, large commercial units and residential colonies. Indian Railways, Steel Authority of India ltd, Tata Steel and Coal India subsidiaries are among the key power consumers of DVC.
Dhanbad, Giridih, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, parts of Koderma and Ranchi fall within the company's command area in Jharkhand.