Chhatrapur to be first smart grid town in Odisha…

 

Chhatrapur, the district headquarters of Ganjam, will become the first 'smart grid town' in the state after it starts using an advanced technology in power supply that can withstand cyclones with wind speed of around 350 km/hour.

The technology will be implemented under a disaster- resilient power strengthening project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on an experimental basis.

The other towns in the district, Berhampur and Gopalpur, would also be included in the scheme at a cost of Rs 817 crore, energy secretary P K Jena said here on Saturday.

Energy minister Arun Kumar Sahu said the initiative was necessary as the power sector frequently bore the brunt of nature's fury.

Jena said under the scheme the towns will have underground power supply lines, apart from overhead cables.

Besides, consumers will be alerted about power cuts through SMSes. He was here to felicitate outstanding performers, who helped restore power supply in Phailin-hit Ganjam in quick time.

The government has also decided to set up a one megawatt solar power plant at Chhatrapur, chairman-cum managing director, Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL), Hemant Sharma, said.

The officials justified the selection of the three towns, saying Berhampur was the biggest commercial hub in the southern part of the state, Gopalpur, a seashore town, was a tourist place and Chhatrapur was the district headquarters town.

Power infrastructure in the district, particularly in these three towns, was severely damaged in cyclone Phailin in October.

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IPPs asked not to use PGCIL line for power supply to Odisha grid...

 

The Odisha government has directed the independent power producers (IPPs) to deliver its share of power at its own substations and transmission lines, instead of transmission network of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL).

“Government is in the process of executing supplementary MoUs with the IPPs incorporating a provision to the effect that the IPPs shall deliver the state’s share of power at the designated substations of OPTCL, so that the interstate transmission charges payable to PGCIL can be avoided,” said a source in the Energy department.

As per existing practice, IPPs had plans to connect to PGCIL transmission system for sale of power throughout the country and would have used the same line to provide power to Odisha. But the state government’s new norm is likely to affect the business prospects of the private power producers to some extent, said experts.

“It is likely to affect the business margin of private producers as they will have less option to sell their power outside the state in case of fall in demand from the state. The state government at the same time must construct better evacuation system for availing such power,” said an official of Ind Bharat, an IPP.

The Odisha government has signed agreements with 29 private developers with combined generation capacity of 38,000 Mw power. As per the agreements, the IPPs have to sell 14 per cent of total generated power to the state network at a subsidized rate. The state government aims to get around 2000 Mw power from private power stations by 2015 and hence, has come up with large transmission network plan.

The Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OTPCL) is in the process of setting up three high capacity substations with an estimated investment of Rs 1000 crore for sale of surplus power.

The substations having 400/220/132 KV capacity would be constructed at Lapanga, Meramundali and Khuntuni. While work for construction of Lapnga substation has already started, land acquisition and other formalities are being chalked out for other two units.

“OPTCL has proposed 400/220 kv grid substations for drawal of state’s share of power from the proposed IPPs. In the event of availability of surplus power from the IPPs, it is planned to sale the Odisha share directly to CTU (central transmission utility) to which the IPPs are planning to connect,” said the Energy department source.

Currently two IPPs, Sterlite Energy and GMR Energy are operational in the state. Another two IPPs, Ind Bharat and Maa Durga Thermal Power are expected to start supplying power to the OPTCL grid in 2014-15.

Source: Business Standard

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OPTCL to complete 81 projects during 12th plan…

Orissa Power Transmission Corporation Limited (OPTCL) is planning to complete about 81 transmission projects during the present 12th plan period.

This move is to take care of the future load growth in the State as a whole.

Out of the total 81, 30 projects are under execution and the remaining 51 are at various stages of implementation.

All these are a part of the efforts that OPTCL is taking to renovate, modernise and strengthen its infrastructure to cater to the growth in the future load.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

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