Mescom to set up 4 GIS substations

With land prices skyrocketing, Mescom has decided to follow Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru by installing four compact substations of Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) in its jurisdiction.

Mescom Technical Director Raghu Prakash said that tender had been floated for setting up 33/11 Kv GIS substations at Urwa Market, Bantwal (in DK district), Saligrama and Udyavara (both in Udupi district), at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore. The land requirement is less unlike the land needed for conventional substations. Under the system, substation can come up vertically. It can also be installed in a cellar with commercial complexes above the substations.

Raghu Prakash said there were no plans of installing smart meters in the Mescom jurisdiction at present. Under Smart grid proposal, smart meters were being installed on a pilot basis in Mysuru under CESC. Smart grid is a fully automated system to monitor distribution of electricity to individual customers and facilitate uninterrupted distribution of power, reduce load shedding and check electricity theft. The smart meters are monitored at centralised transformer monitoring unit under the system, he added.

Under Urja Mitra scheme, an initiative of Ministry of Power to provide scheduled and unscheduled outages to electricity consumers through push notifications/Short Messaging Service (SMS), details of four lakh consumers have been uploaded. These consumers will regularly get SMS on disruption of power supply. Mescom has around 25 lakh consumers. On many occasions, consumers were unwilling to share their mobile numbers, he added.

In a boost to solar power generation through rooftop plants,771 installations had come up in Mescom jurisdiction since 2015. With this, 19,827 KW energy is generated. Karnataka tops the list of states with the highest installed solar power generation capacity in the country. The state’s total solar capacity stood at 5,200 megawatt (MW). On lineman losing lives due to electrocution, he said that safety awareness training were imparted to the linemen regularly. A lineman will climb the pole only after he completes three years of probationary. Gloves, helmet, safety belt and other safety equipment were also given to lineman.

Gram Panchayats across the state and in the district had failed to clear pending electricity bills since 2015. Accordingly, gram panchayats collectively owed Rs 37.31 crore and ULBs owed Rs 31.55 crore to Mescom. The government had written off the pending arrears in 2015.

Under Model Subdivision scheme, as per the guidelines of the State government, the Mescom has initiated measures to convert its lines to underground cables to supply quality power in area-based development of Smart City mission in Mangaluru.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 113 crore. There is also a proposal under Smart City Mission to convert its lines to UG cables on Smart roads developed under Smart City project at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore.

The company is also awaiting approval from government to transform its headquarters in Bejai, Mescom Bhavan, into an energy efficient building under Smart switching technology at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore.