Gurugram discom postpones shifting 2 overhead feeders to May

The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) missed the deadline to commission two feeders this year under its much ambitious Smart Grid project, and has now set a tentative date a month after the original deadline.

The discom had set a deadline of April 10 for the commission, which has now been postponed to May 10 after the two feeders failed an inspection.

It was the first commission of feeders under the Smart Grid project, work on which began on April 10 last year. Under the project, the city’s 1,000 overhead feeders are to be placed underground to minimise electricity distribution losses and faults. Overhead feeders are switched off during inclement weather conditions, causing power cuts. Their shifting underground would eliminate those conditions, officials said.

The feeders are to be placed underground in four different phases, and work for two phases began in April last year. The entire project is slated to be completed in April 2022 .

For the first commissioning, the DHBVN had identified two feeders — CR1 and CR2, which are connected with the 66 kilovolt substation in Sector 38. The move is likely to improve electricity distribution system in areas such as sectors 30-45. Both feeders have been in trial for the last three weeks — a necessity before they are opened for operation.

“There have been some technical issues/faults noticed by the experts that are being removed, and it will take a week or two. We have asked contractor to rectify the faults at earliest. The two feeders will help us improving electricity supply in the area. We switch off the feeders during a storm and rain, which cause forced power cuts and faults. This will be eliminated in the underground feeder system,” a DHBVN official familiar with the matter said.

Feeder is the main electricity connecting line or cable that connects a substation with transformer and from where it is supplied domestically.

“We are commissioning the CR1 and CR2 feeders soon, and two more by mid-May. Our aim is to commission 12 feeders by the end of the year in DLF, Sushant Lok, Palam Vihar, sectors 21, 22, 23 and other areas, and we will complete entire project by April 2022. The move is not only aimed at facilitating round-the-clock power supply to the city, but also to beautify the city, as a large number of overhead electric cables and over 7,000 electricity poles will be removed from the streets,” said Sanjiv Chopra, chief engineer DHBVN, adding that present manual maintenance will be replaced by a software-based system.

The DHBVN has over 5 lakh consumers, spread across 600 group housing societies, 35 villages, over 50 municipal colonies, 75 unauthorised colonies and in sectors 1-57. Pilferage or power theft has been a big concern for the discom, as it impairs its power distribution and supply by 20-50%.