Kerala State Electricity Board set to revive ring main project

KOCHI: After much delay, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is all set start the ring main project that will interconnect all electrical sections in the city. Once the Rs 210 crore project is completed, the city won't face power disruptions due to technical reasons. 

KSEB will complete the tender process by mid-January and award the contract by the end of the month. 

"We have sought the legal advice and opinion of our finance wing on the pre-qualification bids submitted. Then the pre-qualification committee of the board will consider the bids. Once they give the approval, we will be able to open the financial bids and award the work," said KSEB chief engineer V V Sathyarajan. "We expect that the tender procedures can be completed by mid-January and so the work can start by February," he said. 

Once the project is being implemented under the accelerated power development programme (APDP) is completed, all the transformers in the city would be connected to the ring main unit. If any of these transformers fail, the distribution system would draw power from the neighbouring systems automatically. Overhead lines in the city will be replaced with underground cables. KSEB will need 200 km of cables to connect the various stretches in the city. The project is expected to be completed within a year. With the project, KSEB aims to bring down the transmission loss to less than 15% from the current 19% over the next five years. 

If KSEB is able to reduce transmission loss to 15%, the Union government will give 10 per cent of the project cost each year. So KSEB will get 50% of the project cost as grant from the Union government if it controls transmission loss. 

The amount set aside for the project is Rs 179 crore and the remaining amount will be utilized for constructing a sub-station at Gandhinagar. The project was delayed on account of a petition in the court alleging corruption in awarding the work to a Korean firm. Recently, the court ordered the government to take up the project. 

If a transformer fails after the project is implemented, it will draw power from the neighbouring system automatically.