Chennai floods - lessons for Power Utility engineers and Decision makers

Chennai floods has seen new 'levels' with the water discharge from some of the lakes exceeding 30000 Cusecs. And to see that more than 35 lakes were overflowing adds another dimension to the possible raise of water levels in the city low lying areas.

So some of the key take away for me from this disaster are:

1. De link the city's distribution and hand it over to a separate company. It can be private or public sector owned. But it cannot be a block of a monolith like what the current situation is in Tamilnadu ~ combined with Generation company. Such a combination obfuscates the finances. 
2. Since infrastructure development requires huge funding, it is essential that this is addressed first. Form  a company and transfer the assets of city distribution to it; if there are generation companies near transfer to a subsidiary of this distribution company and have a separate balance sheet.
3. This will facilitate accountability and enable the regulator to fix appropriate tariff to recover the costs and facilitate the huge investments needed to upgrade and maintain the systems.
4. Identify the flood levels of each area and make sure that the substation is above this level.
5. It is time we up graded the substations. Given the significant softening of prices for Gas Insulated substations(GIS) it is time to replace all existing Air Insulated substation in the city and outskirts to GIS. This would also release significant land mass which can be monetized. 
6. If the existing substations are in low lying areas, relocate them at elevated ground or raise the FGL. In case of GIS substations the switchgear and all auxillary support such as DC supply, control and protection, ventilation and air condition systems shall be located at Ground plus 3 M elevation.
7. Any substation which has is more than 30 years old has to be dismantled and reconstructed taking in the new realities and must be and must be GIS.
8. Raise all LT Feeder Pillar boxes bottom to above 1.5 meter with respect to road levels as has been done for the ring main units.
9. Replace the existing feeder distribution arrangement of fuses to appropriate switching devises.

All these require investments and cooperation from the citizens. From the public point of view the key points are:

1. If Feeder Pillar  boxes are improved and switching devices are provided I am sure pilferage may happen. This has to be stopped by public action.
2. Feeder pillar boxes has to be  maintained well. Currently they are used by public as a convenient spot to urinate. This has to change. Public should raise their voice at such miscreants.

For fund raising we can opt for the old electricity act provision of introducing a surcharge for city distribution. This would show a recovery mechanism and funding agencies would look at it positively.

These are some suggestions. There are many more. But what needs to be done is definitive action; instead of forgetting the entire disaster and talking about heroics  or talking politics and blaming each other.

Fair Regulation.

V.Balakrishnan ​​​​​19, First Main Road,

​​​​​​​Karpgam Gardens, Adyar,

​​​​​​​Chennai – 600 020

​​​​​​​+91 9840121596

Dear Editor,

 

Sub: Fair Regulation

 

The leader in your paper today rightly stresses the need for ‘fair’ regulators. It is verytimely. I am in total agreement with the stated opinion that the current decision of the regulator is a “Balanced Decision”. If they had taken a narrow view they would haveto hold Tata Power responsible for the ‘rash’ bidding adopted by them. Such an approach would have been counterproductive as in the total grid with operating capacities in excess of 178000 MW, we are currently adjudicating on the tariff of just8000 MW (including Adani Power) less than 2%. While taking the deciiosn therefore they might have weighed and considered that giving an incentive of 52 paise for these plants, on a pooled basis will have very little impact on the pricing to the consumer.

 

At the same time, the assets under consideration namely Tata power and Adani Power are current state of the art plant with life span of 30 years plus from today and need to be encouraged.

 

Notwithstanding the above, considering the view of price increase being there theregulator has correctly, taken effort to offset its impact through tweaking some of the provisions by shifting from ‘availability’ to ‘Load factor’ and removed unnecessary comfort to the major utility operators. In sum the move has saved some plants, which were on the verge of shutdown and has paved the way for reducing the pooled cost.

 

With regards,

 

V.BALAKRISHNAN