MSEB goes powerful

PUNE, Nov 30: Gearing up to meet the increasing power needs of the city which has been dubbed by experts as a major emerging software cen...

PUNE, Nov 30: Gearing up to meet the increasing power needs of the city which has been dubbed by experts as a major emerging software centre, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board MSEB is embarking upon an ambitious Rs 98.79 crore 8220;System improvement and renovation8221; project in a bid to reduce the incidence of power failures and breakdowns and offer an uninterrupted power supply.

The project will be inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde at a function on December 2. Officiating chief engineer, Pune Urban Zone, Avinash Shetji who termed this as a total overhaul of the existing MSEB system pointed out that it was yet to receive a major face-lift since 1963 when the MSEB took over from the Tata Electric Supply Company. Once the system gets into place, it is expected to cover the areas under the Pune Municipal Corporation PMC, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation PCMC and the areas under the three cantonment boards.

The Power Finance Corporation of the Central Government has already committed Rs 30 crore for the first phase of the three-year-old project and the rest of the funds will be available as per the requirements of the MSEB. The state electricity board is also expected to tap some of the cooperative banks for funds for this project.

The renovation process includes the replacement of transformers in areas where required, replacing the express feeders, shifting over to an underground cable network throughout the city and changing the old feeder pillars, circuit breakers, ringmen units and switch gears and placement of high tension cables. Munde will inaugurate the first phase of the project which involves the installation of an underground cable network from Rasta Peth sub-station to the Kasba Peth sub-station. Other areas will be subsequently covered in the scheme.Shetji expected the incidence of leakages which are presently in the range from the present eight per cent to ten per cent by around one per cent. Moreover, some areas in the city presently function on a single line and hence in the event of a power break-down cannot be switched over to an alternate line. Presently, the extent of the cabl network in the city is around 22 per cent which is expected to double upto 50 per cent in the next two years.

The city presently has around 7.5 lakh consumers and has a regular load of around 650 MVA. This, according to Shetji is expected to increase by 10 per cent every year to touch a figure of 800 MVA in the next two years.