Bhubaneswar: Odisha, despite the far reaching adverse impact of Covid -19 pandemic, expects a marginal 6% reduction of power consumption in the State during 2020-2!.
This has been revealed in a high-level review meeting chaired by State energy minister Dibyasankar Mishra,
The meeting was told that power consumption is returning to near normal in the post lockdown period.
The meeting reviewed the status of revenue collection from Electricity Duty and Electrical Accidents through video conferencing with the participation of principal secretary energy Nikunja Dhal, EIC (Electrical) Santosh Das.
In FY 2020-21 during COVID-19 pandemic situation the industrial electrical consumption has been reduced in the early two months by almost 26% from the previous year. However, following the unlock period the economic activities has again picked up and the industrial consumption has also increased. Accordingly, the revenue from Electricity Duty has also increased.
“It is predicted, there may be reduction of consumption and revenue collection by not more than 6% than the last year”, said the minister. He advised principal secretary to conduct a separate meeting with Industry Department to resolve any disputes of industries relating to Electricity Duty.
The minister also reviewed the progress of Real Time Data Acquisition System (RT-DAS) to capture the meter data of the Captive Power Plants remotely. He directed EIC (Elec.) to complete the installation of RT-DAS system at the earliest.
Electrical accidents are a major concern in the use of electricity. Minister reviewed the total number of accidents occurred in 2019-20 and this FY upto August. He reviewed the progress of accident compensation gazette notification. Stating that accident compensation is a historic step in the field of electricity accidents, he said the suffered people will get benefit in case of accidents.
The meeting was told that 90% of accidents are due to human error. Most of the accidents are happening in 11 KV system and then in the LT system. He suggested to the Electrical Inspectorate to devise a mechanism for improvement of electrical safety systems in which safety training, safety examinations, educating electrical workman working at ground level and creating public awareness shall be a continuous program round the year.
