The Smart Grid project in Chandigarh covering Sub-Division 5 (SD-5) of the Union territory is over 80 per cent complete, in terms of smart meters installed.
According to the latest official report, a total of 24,213 smart meters were installed in the field, as of June 30, 2022.
The smart grid project aims to cover 29,433 consumers in the SD-5 area of Chandigarh. The project is being implemented by Electricity Wing of Engineering Department UT, Chandigarh (EWEDC), under the aegis of National Smart Grid Mission (NSGM).
Of the total 29,433 smart meters to be installed, the achievement as of June 30, 2022, of 24,213 meters, implies a completion rate of 82.3 per cent.
It is worth noting that the pace of smart meter installation appears to have slowed down in recent months. In the April-June quarter of FY23, barely 272 smart meters were installed. As against this, deployment in the immediately preceding quarter (January-March period of FY22), was nearly 6,000 meters.
The overall project costing Rs.28.58 crore entails Central government support of Rs.8.57 crore. Of this Central aid, around Rs.7.71 crore was released up to June 30, 2022.
The Chandigarh (SD-5) project aims to equip the grid with functionalities like advance metering infrastructure (AMI), distribution transformer management unit (DTMU) and SCADA.
While the project management agency is REC Power Distribution Company Ltd (RECPDCL), the project implementation agencies of the Chandigarh (SD-5) smart grid project are Hyderabad-based Analogics Tech India Ltd and Faridabad-based Synergy Systems & Solutions Ltd. The latter, it is learnt, is looking after the SCADA functionality.
The Chandigarh (SD-5) project was approved in late 2018 and survey work began in January 2019. The project covers Sectors 29, 31, 47 and 48, apart from Industrial Area I and II. The project also has six villages in its purview.
Also read: Chandigarh Smart Grid Project: Nearly 6,000 Smart Meters Installed
Only two NSGM projects left
Currently, there are only two smart grid projects under NSGM left. Till around early 2021, there were five projects, three of which got progressively cancelled. Two projects – Rourkela, Odisha and Ranchi, Jharkhand – were abandoned in 2021. More recently, the Chandigarh smart project covering the entire UT except SD-5 was cancelled.
The only other NSGM smart grid project left is that in Rajasthan. This project, costing around Rs.87 crore and being implemented by state utility Jaipur Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Ltd (JVVNL), envisages advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) for around 1.5 lakh consumers in six urban towns of Baran, Bharatpur, Bundi, Dholpur, Jhalawar and Karauli. As of June 30, 2022, a total of 1.16 lakh smart meters were deployed in the Rajasthan project.
Featured photograph is purely for representation
