State's power tariff is the lowest in the country - Times Of India

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-01/goa/31112995_1_...

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State's power tariff is the lowest in the country

Joaquim Fernandes, TNN Mar 1, 2012, 03.30AM IST

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| NTPC | Goa's power requirement

PANAJI: Five years ago, Goa's power requirement was only about 260 MW, but has now increased to 470 MW. Having no power generation of its own, the state gets most of its power (about 448 MW) from the central sector power station. It gets 16 MW from the private Reliance plant at Sancoale, and the rest from co-generation by the Goa Energy Private Limited.
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Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had earlier sanctioned two power generation plants of 500 MW each to Goa, but since these were coal-based, the National Thermal Power Corporation ( NTPC) rejected the proposal. At the moment there are no fresh proposals to set up power generation plants in the state. The generation of hydro-electricity is a possibility, but since the sites are based in wild life sanctuaries, permissions are needed from the Union ministry of environment and forests. The worst handicap for generating power in the state is public opposition. Environmentalists and activists oppose setting up of new facilities on the grounds that these will damage the ecology or pose danger to human habitations. Power department said that agriculture takes less than 1% of the power available in Goa. There are no constraints from the department itself to give power connections for irrigation or other agricultural purposes, department sources said. Department sources said the Goa power tariff is probably one of the lowest in the country. Goa has a total of 5.12 lakh power consumers including 'low tension domestic' (LTD), 'low tension commercial' and high tension power consumers. Of these 5.12 lakh consumers, 730 are high tension consumers who give the state 63% of the power revenue. The tariff for the 'low tension domestic' consumer in Goa is as follows: For the first 60 units, 1/unit; from 61 units to 250 units, 1.50 per unit; from 251 units to 500 units, 2.20 per unit and above 500 units, 2.50/unit. Though the government has not raised the tariff for the last five years, there are concerns about the rising costs of power and rising costs on infrastructure maintenance. A top department source said the government has been able to maintain low tariffs by restricting transmission losses to about 14%, whereas in other parts of the country these losses are about 25%. Underground cabling in parts of Goa has been one of the most significant achievements of the power department in the last five years. The department spent 270-crore on the underground cabling of Panaji and other main towns of Margao and Porvorim. Besides, the department also carried out underground cabling in the coastal belts of Goa including Calangute, Candolim and Benaulim. Part of the funds for the underground cabling came from the central APDRP scheme.

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11/04/2012 11:31 AM

State's power tariff is the lowest in the country - Times Of India

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-01/goa/31112995_1_...

The frequency of power cuts has reduced substantially over the last five years. This is primarily due to upgradation of the distribution network through the setting up of many new sub-stations and augmentation of existing sub-stations. Also, with transmission cables going underground at many places, power disruptions are less as occurrence of tree branches falling on overhead power cables and breaking the cables has reduced significantly. Many new power stations and sub-stations were set up in the last four-five years. Three new 33/11 KV sub-stations include the Campal (Panaji) 10 MVA sub-station, the Shiroda 6.3 MVA sub-station and the Curti-Ponda 6.3 MVA sub-station. A new 220/33 KV sub-station with two 50 MVA transformers was also set up. The existing Kadamba 110/33 KV sub-station had two 40 MVA transformers. The sub-station has been augmented with two more 40 MVA transformers. The Tivim 220/110 KV station has a new 100 MVA transformer.
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Readers' opinions (1)

Sort by: Newest | Oldest edwin gomes (goa) 01 Mar, 2012 11:07 AM The power department in Goa is in big soup . financially it has become weak ,LT billing in state has collapsed so we find many places bimontly ,trimontly . six monthly billing so from where have they calculated the losses figure ,when you dont have audited figure and monthly billing how do you calculate AT&C loss figure . The Engineer s who have done B.E are rooting with some having put in a service of 29 years are still continuing as Junior engineers and higher hierarchy continuing after retirement .the planning is in utter messs and no direction for the dfepartment .with the new regulation of JERC coming up it will be difficult for department to survive unless it drastically reforms itself to face modern challenges and gears up radically

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11/04/2012 11:31 AM