Lighting Kolkata since 1899
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
R.K. Goenka
One of India’s leading industrial conglomerates, the Rs 15,000 crore RPG enterprises comprises about twenty companies with CESC occupying the pride of the place. Operating since 1899, CESC is a vertically integrated power company serving the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah, with peak demand of around 1600MW. The company’s chairman is Dr R P Goenka and its vice-chairman, Mr Sanjiv Goenka. The RPG association with CESC began in 1989.
Kolkata: a great metropolis
Calcutta, was the first Indian city to get electricity from a thermal power station in April 1899. The city, famed for its palaces and personalities, was brilliantly illuminated till the early 1970s, when prolonged power cuts affected life with demand outstripping supply. CESC commissioned a 240MW power station in Titagarh in 1983 to meet the growing demand of power. About 135MW capacity was built-up at Southern generating station by 1991. But it was not enough. A bold new initiative was needed.
Meeting the challenge
Under RPG, CESC selected a site at Budge Budge (south of Kolkata) to build a new plant, and by 1999, as much 500MW (2x250MW) of capacity had been built up there. Load shedding reduced drastically. A third 250 MW was added recently. Today, Budge Budge is a 750MW generating station, out of the total generating capacity of 1225MW. Supplying power to a metro is complex and CESC was, and is, in the service sector. So other measures were clearly needed, for example, steps to contain the cost of generation, maximise plant load factor at power stations; minimise distribution losses; secure supplemental power sources to curtail power cuts; improve reliability of supply; and finally expand capacity to meet growing demand. To sum up, the consumer service experience had to become much better.
The 3x250 MW thermal power station at Budge Budge is the pride of CESC.
Today, CESC serves a licensed area of 567 sq.km., and generates most of the power needed. It has 23.6 lakh metered consumers. A total population of nearly two crore use CESC power. Loss in distribution has been cut by more than half to just 13 per cent, a globally acceptable norm, on a total sales of 7203 million units in 2009-10.
Power price and conditions of supply are determined by the West Bengal State Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBE RC), the state regulatory body for the sector. Kolkata is now virtually free of power cuts despite continuously rising demand. More importantly, the cost of power in 2008-2009 is lower than what it was in 2004! How was this achieved? Excellence and efficiency in all sectors provide the answers.
CESC plants run at very high
plant load factor (PLF)
CESC’s power plants are among top 10 in India in terms of efficiency of generation and plant load factor and this is one of the greatest successes of the RPG team. This has been possible owing to excellent man power resources and planning. For example, CESC sources its coal, from its dedicated mines and external sources. A fine-tuned procurement and logistics structure works to minimise the impact of problems like coal price volatility and supply disruptions. The beneficiary is the consumer who gets uninterrupted power at the lowest cost.
Distribution losses brought down
CESC puts in huge investments in its distribution network and today operates through a network of generating and receiving stations linked through thousands of circuit kilometres of the highest quality power distribution lines. The most recent achievement on this front is the 90km transmission line from Budge Budge to the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass built without disturbing the ecology of the zone in any way, despite huge engineering challenges.
The company invests in its receiving stations, in state-of-the-art technology like gas and air insulated switches and related equipment and control rooms. The result one of the lowest technical network losses in India, at around 10 per cent. Investment in distribution rose from Rs 200 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 585 crore in 2008-09.
Linking millions of establishments in an old but continuously-growing urban conglomerate like Kolkata-Howrah is always a major challenge and in the case of CESC, this is further complicated by weather and environmental concerns.
It is not uncommon for demand to rise by 100-15 0 per cent between morning and evening on the same day. The distribution team works ceaselessly and proactively on strengthening of the network and undertakes emergency repairs with minimum downtime. It is supported by a network of establishments and depots monitored from a centralised cluster comprising control rooms, command centres, regional offices and stores.
Power theft, a major problem in many cities, has been brought down to around 3.0 per cent of sales, thanks to outstanding government and public cooperation and tireless efforts of the company’s loss control team. Key initiatives, which yielded success and cut T&D loss include detection and disconnection of tampered meters, de-hooking drives, jamming of service cut-outs, micro-energy audit in domestic and commercial establishments, implementation of high voltage distribution systems (HVDS) and information technology empowered surveillance and monitoring. In-house software was developed to achieve this. The enactment of the Electricity Act 2003 boosted the success of this initiative.
Lower cost
Success on this front is a major CESC achievement: The average tariff for CESC consumers, regulated by WBE RC, is among the lowest at Rs 4.56 per unit as on April 2010.
In 2003-04, the average tariff was 415 paise per unit, till 2008-09, the average tariff was 409 paise per unit thanks to all round improvement in efficiency!
Reduction in power charge from FY 2004 has been achieved through outstanding gains in efficiency in generation, transmission and distribution.
In contrast, inflation between FY 2004 and FY 2009 totalled 33 per cent. The cost of coal, consumable s and equipment has risen sharply as well.
Yet, CESC consumers pay less than consumers in other metros!
Improved fault repair
CESC has pioneered the use of ring main units (RMU) of gas-filled RMUs. This has led to faster restoration of supply and minimum interruption, in addition such equipment provides indication of the direction of fault facilitating quicker detection of fault and delivers much better safety of operating personnel.
Improved consumer services
In today’s IT enabled age, consumer services have acquired a new dimension and CESC has not lagged behind. The company website allows consumers to access a comprehensive range of services online including bill generation and payment. In parallel, consumers can avail of service like advance bill payment, pre-paid meters, remote reading of meters etc., despite problems posed by bottlenecks in supply of equipment needed to render some of these services. Consumers can visit CESC at www.cesc.co.in with their problems.
CESC in addition serves its consumers through its 24x7 computerised call centre at 1912 /44031912 for power supply faults and also power theft reporting. Special care is taken for building consumer awareness on power consumption, safety and conservation of energy directly and through the website.
Further initiative : Partnership with Singapore Power
CESC started looking overseas for a partner to improve service quality. Singapore Power, a global leader in power distribution with a network reliability that is the highest in the world, is the chosen partner.
The partnership has started to identify constraint s and opportunities, settle quality control issues and develop preventive maintenance practices and standard operating procedures besides providing technical training. Since November 2009 the two partners have launched the Asian Institute of Power Management to train power sector professionals in best practices in service delivery.
CESC: An environment-friendly company
Operating efficiency at power stations has been partly achieved through measures taken to minimise the impact on the environment. All the new generating stations have attained zero effluent. status and use much less water than permitted under existing standards.
The Budge Budge thermal power station is the first in the world to have qualified for carbon credits under United Nations Framework Convention on climate change.
CESC recently won the only national award in the environment category for power stations on account of success achieved in minimisation of dust hazards from coal and fly ash, the complete recycling of water used in its plant s and 100 per cent re-use of generated fly ash in the production of cement by independent manufacturers in India and Bangladesh.
Way forward
CESC has major plans to raise generation by several times. By 2015, RPG group would add capacity in West Bengal and other states like, Orissa, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand. A large part of this capacity would be coal-based thermal plants. But it would also include substantial hydropower and other renewable energy. Capacity addition in West Bengal would take care of the growth in demand of Kolkata area.
In addition to the capacity building, RPG aims to acquire distribution areas in other cities to provide improved services to consumers at optimum cost.
Conclusion
As in many other countries, meeting growing customer demand for power on a reliable and cost effective basis is a major challenge. CESC has proved that it is possible to achieve appreciable improvements in operations and service quality through the application of appropriate management skills and innovative thinking.
CESC has established that it is possible to generate more power and at best cost, to transmit and distribute electricity with minimal losses, and attain world class standards in service and environmental protection.
One of India’s leading industrial conglomerates, the Rs 15,000 crore RPG enterprises comprises about twenty companies with CESC occupying the pride of the place. Operating since 1899, CESC is a vertically integrated power company serving the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah, with peak demand of around 1600MW. The company’s chairman is Dr R P Goenka and its vice-chairman, Mr Sanjiv Goenka. The RPG association with CESC began in 1989.
Kolkata: a great metropolis
Calcutta, was the first Indian city to get electricity from a thermal power station in April 1899. The city, famed for its palaces and personalities, was brilliantly illuminated till the early 1970s, when prolonged power cuts affected life with demand outstripping supply. CESC commissioned a 240MW power station in Titagarh in 1983 to meet the growing demand of power. About 135MW capacity was built-up at Southern generating station by 1991. But it was not enough. A bold new initiative was needed.
Meeting the challenge
Under RPG, CESC selected a site at Budge Budge (south of Kolkata) to build a new plant, and by 1999, as much 500MW (2x250MW) of capacity had been built up there. Load shedding reduced drastically. A third 250 MW was added recently. Today, Budge Budge is a 750MW generating station, out of the total generating capacity of 1225MW. Supplying power to a metro is complex and CESC was, and is, in the service sector. So other measures were clearly needed, for example, steps to contain the cost of generation, maximise plant load factor at power stations; minimise distribution losses; secure supplemental power sources to curtail power cuts; improve reliability of supply; and finally expand capacity to meet growing demand. To sum up, the consumer service experience had to become much better.
The 3x250 MW thermal power station at Budge Budge is the pride of CESC.
Today, CESC serves a licensed area of 567 sq.km., and generates most of the power needed. It has 23.6 lakh metered consumers. A total population of nearly two crore use CESC power. Loss in distribution has been cut by more than half to just 13 per cent, a globally acceptable norm, on a total sales of 7203 million units in 2009-10.
Power price and conditions of supply are determined by the West Bengal State Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBE RC), the state regulatory body for the sector. Kolkata is now virtually free of power cuts despite continuously rising demand. More importantly, the cost of power in 2008-2009 is lower than what it was in 2004! How was this achieved? Excellence and efficiency in all sectors provide the answers.
CESC plants run at very high
plant load factor (PLF)
CESC’s power plants are among top 10 in India in terms of efficiency of generation and plant load factor and this is one of the greatest successes of the RPG team. This has been possible owing to excellent man power resources and planning. For example, CESC sources its coal, from its dedicated mines and external sources. A fine-tuned procurement and logistics structure works to minimise the impact of problems like coal price volatility and supply disruptions. The beneficiary is the consumer who gets uninterrupted power at the lowest cost.
Distribution losses brought down
CESC puts in huge investments in its distribution network and today operates through a network of generating and receiving stations linked through thousands of circuit kilometres of the highest quality power distribution lines. The most recent achievement on this front is the 90km transmission line from Budge Budge to the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass built without disturbing the ecology of the zone in any way, despite huge engineering challenges.
The company invests in its receiving stations, in state-of-the-art technology like gas and air insulated switches and related equipment and control rooms. The result one of the lowest technical network losses in India, at around 10 per cent. Investment in distribution rose from Rs 200 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 585 crore in 2008-09.
Linking millions of establishments in an old but continuously-growing urban conglomerate like Kolkata-Howrah is always a major challenge and in the case of CESC, this is further complicated by weather and environmental concerns.
It is not uncommon for demand to rise by 100-15 0 per cent between morning and evening on the same day. The distribution team works ceaselessly and proactively on strengthening of the network and undertakes emergency repairs with minimum downtime. It is supported by a network of establishments and depots monitored from a centralised cluster comprising control rooms, command centres, regional offices and stores.
Power theft, a major problem in many cities, has been brought down to around 3.0 per cent of sales, thanks to outstanding government and public cooperation and tireless efforts of the company’s loss control team. Key initiatives, which yielded success and cut T&D loss include detection and disconnection of tampered meters, de-hooking drives, jamming of service cut-outs, micro-energy audit in domestic and commercial establishments, implementation of high voltage distribution systems (HVDS) and information technology empowered surveillance and monitoring. In-house software was developed to achieve this. The enactment of the Electricity Act 2003 boosted the success of this initiative.
Lower cost
Success on this front is a major CESC achievement: The average tariff for CESC consumers, regulated by WBE RC, is among the lowest at Rs 4.56 per unit as on April 2010.
In 2003-04, the average tariff was 415 paise per unit, till 2008-09, the average tariff was 409 paise per unit thanks to all round improvement in efficiency!
Reduction in power charge from FY 2004 has been achieved through outstanding gains in efficiency in generation, transmission and distribution.
In contrast, inflation between FY 2004 and FY 2009 totalled 33 per cent. The cost of coal, consumable s and equipment has risen sharply as well.
Yet, CESC consumers pay less than consumers in other metros!
Improved fault repair
CESC has pioneered the use of ring main units (RMU) of gas-filled RMUs. This has led to faster restoration of supply and minimum interruption, in addition such equipment provides indication of the direction of fault facilitating quicker detection of fault and delivers much better safety of operating personnel.
Improved consumer services
In today’s IT enabled age, consumer services have acquired a new dimension and CESC has not lagged behind. The company website allows consumers to access a comprehensive range of services online including bill generation and payment. In parallel, consumers can avail of service like advance bill payment, pre-paid meters, remote reading of meters etc., despite problems posed by bottlenecks in supply of equipment needed to render some of these services. Consumers can visit CESC at www.cesc.co.in with their problems.
CESC in addition serves its consumers through its 24x7 computerised call centre at 1912 /44031912 for power supply faults and also power theft reporting. Special care is taken for building consumer awareness on power consumption, safety and conservation of energy directly and through the website.
Further initiative : Partnership with Singapore Power
CESC started looking overseas for a partner to improve service quality. Singapore Power, a global leader in power distribution with a network reliability that is the highest in the world, is the chosen partner.
The partnership has started to identify constraint s and opportunities, settle quality control issues and develop preventive maintenance practices and standard operating procedures besides providing technical training. Since November 2009 the two partners have launched the Asian Institute of Power Management to train power sector professionals in best practices in service delivery.
CESC: An environment-friendly company
Operating efficiency at power stations has been partly achieved through measures taken to minimise the impact on the environment. All the new generating stations have attained zero effluent. status and use much less water than permitted under existing standards.
The Budge Budge thermal power station is the first in the world to have qualified for carbon credits under United Nations Framework Convention on climate change.
CESC recently won the only national award in the environment category for power stations on account of success achieved in minimisation of dust hazards from coal and fly ash, the complete recycling of water used in its plant s and 100 per cent re-use of generated fly ash in the production of cement by independent manufacturers in India and Bangladesh.
Way forward
CESC has major plans to raise generation by several times. By 2015, RPG group would add capacity in West Bengal and other states like, Orissa, Maharashtra, Bihar and Jharkhand. A large part of this capacity would be coal-based thermal plants. But it would also include substantial hydropower and other renewable energy. Capacity addition in West Bengal would take care of the growth in demand of Kolkata area.
In addition to the capacity building, RPG aims to acquire distribution areas in other cities to provide improved services to consumers at optimum cost.
Conclusion
As in many other countries, meeting growing customer demand for power on a reliable and cost effective basis is a major challenge. CESC has proved that it is possible to achieve appreciable improvements in operations and service quality through the application of appropriate management skills and innovative thinking.
CESC has established that it is possible to generate more power and at best cost, to transmit and distribute electricity with minimal losses, and attain world class standards in service and environmental protection.