Officials of ERDA (Electrical Research & Development Association) recently met the newly appointed Power Secretary, Alok Kumar, and updated him on various ongoing projects at ERDA.
In particular, ERDA officials informed Alok Kumar about the recently developed HTLS (High-Temperature Low Sag) conductor testing facility, which is unique in India. He was pleased to know that this project will reduce the foreign exchange and time spent by Indian manufacturers by giving them a facility to conduct the testing in India, thereby supporting the nation’s collective goal of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. ERDA officials also touched upon the energy meter test facility of ERDA that accounts for 50 percent of smart meter testing in India, a release from ERDA said.
Kumar also inquired about the progress of a plan, initiated by him, of improving the quality of electrical equipment by getting discoms’ store samples tested at the discom store. ERDA team was pleased to apprise him that following his guidance, PVVNL and ERDA have signed an MoU and have jointly established a laboratory at PVVNL which caters to the testing requirement of PVVNL, MVVNL, DVVNL, and PUVVNL. He also expressed his desire to have a similar setup for discoms throughout the country. (Note: PVVNL, MVVNL, DVVNL, and PUVVNL are state government-owned power distribution utilities in Uttar Pradesh.)
Kumar appreciated ERDA’s endeavour to serve the nation with its quality improvement services. ERDA team also wished that the Indian power sector will emerge stronger under his astute guidance after the sudden setback suffered during the COVID pandemic times.
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It may be recalled that Alok Kumar (IAS) took over office of Secretary, Union Ministry of Power on February 1, 2021. Prior to this, he served as Additional Chief Secretary, Industrial Development and IT & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh.
Kumar is a civil engineering graduate from IIT-Roorkee and holds an MBA degree in financial management. He initiated and implemented various initiatives to improve the power system quality and reliability of Uttar Pradesh’s utilities. He also provided ERDA an opportunity to be associated with this endeavor. He had also encouraged ERDA to set up a testing laboratory at the premises of PVVNL at Muradabad.
Photograph shows ERDA official Brijesh Sachdeva (left) congratulating Alok Kumar, Power Secretary, Government of India.
