Sunday 16 September 2018
Thursday 19 April 2018
Why power theft in India is a complex problem?
Film Review
Why should I be scared of the government when electric current doesn't scare me? asks Loha Singh, who purloins electricity and provides illegal connections for a living in Katiyabaaz (Powerless), a riveting new documentary on power theft in India.
Singh, an irascible young man with a gift for invective, is the pivot around whom the film rotates.
He snaps off and mangles wires to the main public supply cables for a pittance to provide electricity to scores of homes in a decaying city. His grateful customers regard free electricity as a right or buy stolen power because they cannot afford to buy it. One of the most poignant moments in the film is when Singh returns to his fragile mother in their crumbling family home and she implores him to "leave this dangerous job" and do something honourable for a living. Singh's eyes well up in a moment of self-realisation of his bleak and hopeless life.
Loha Singh is, at once, the hero and villain of Katiyabaaz. Introduced to the filmmakers Deepti Kakkar and Fahad Mustafa by a drinking buddy, he is a man who, as Mustafa tells me, "typifies [the city of] Kanpur - a swaggering pride arising from having to make do in the most desperate of circumstances".
Shortages
The film is set in Kanpur, which once prided itself as the Manchester of the East for its thriving factories and is today a derelict city, teeming with people and battling shortages. Thickets of electricity wires hang precariously over congested roads as residents endure up to 16 hours of power cuts a day. Three million residents live without power. Traffic crawls and the air is polluted. Water is scarce.
A well-meaning and seemingly efficient woman officer arrives to take charge of the bankrupt state-owned power supply company. She vows to trim losses, make consumers pay their bill on time and launches a drive against power thieves. She also infuriates a smooth local politician belonging to a powerful regional party who, at one point, barges into her office railing against her initiatives. "Both the poor and rich steal electricity," she says. "How much can the government subsidise?"
She is right. In Uttar Pradesh, one of India's most politically influential but electricity-starved states where Kanpur is located, a fifth of the more than 10 million consumers are typically without power at any given time. Transparency International found that the state's public electricity providers are widely viewed as corrupt.
A study found that power thefts in the state typically rise before local elections, suggesting that it is linked to large-scale theft by people who are likely to vote a politician who turns a blind eye to the problem. Interestingly, the study found that power theft in Uttar Pradesh was more about "political capture of public service delivery by the local elites" rather than political criminality or weak institutions.
In Katiyabaaz, however, both the power thief and his consumers appear to be struggling to live with dignity - and power.
The film, which took two years and 20m rupees ($316,828; £197,869) to make, follows the fortunes of the power thief, the bureaucrat and the politician through a series of incidents in the run up to state elections in Uttar Pradesh.
In the end, the populist pro-free power politician wins the elections. The bureaucrat is transferred to an insignificant town. Harried consumers breathe easy. The power company continues to bleed with a third of its losses caused by power theft. Kanpur still reels under 15 hours of blackouts a day. Loha Singh continues to risk his miserable life as a power thief, snapping wires by day and getting high on cheap booze at night.
"Change is tough," the polite woman officer says in a revealing interview in her mosquito-infested government bungalow. "I have to take the middle path, use softer options in the beginning. If I start tough, I will go," she says.
She goes, anyway. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Katiyabaaz holds out no promise of a better-lit future.
In many ways, this dark, moody, slyly political and occasionally funny film is a perceptive commentary on why change is so tough - and complex - in India.[Courtesy:Soutik Biswas
Delhi correspondent,BBC]Thursday 4 May 2017
Power Theft-will it build darkness in India?
India, the largest
democratic country of the world, provides shelter to more than 1.25 billion people. It is home to three times the population of the US though
geographically only one third of it. The infrastructure has been developed
enormously since its independence in 1947 but, even now many villages do not
have electricity. Uninterrupted power is dream for most of the population. In
this scenario, strange it may sound about 132 Billion units of electricity is
pilfered in India during 2011-12. About 70% of population of India still lives
in rural areas where agriculture provides the main livelihood to the majority.
Many people do not have electricity supply and even when it is available,
supply of electricity is erratic. When a utility starts providing 24 hrs power
supply to certain area, it finds a major place in the newspaper. The Ministry of
Power, though announced ‘Electricity to all by 2012’ as its objective, could
not achieve it so far and now extended traget to 2019.
People have to wait for hours to get the electric supply restored once a
snag develops somewhere, especially in
rural area where ‘no power’ is accepted as destiny. Development of energy
sector does not take place in tandem with the increasing demand and ever
spreading menace of Power theft has worsened the situation. The rapidly
growing population and rising urbanization has put great stress on energy
sector. India is power stressed. Increasing
vitality of economy is not matched by similar vigour in the Power sector which
is yet to wake up to the 21st century challenges.
It
is a fact that installed capacity has recorded growth. From a mere 1713MW
installed capacity in 1950s, it has risen to about 314642
MW by 2017. (CEA-Installed Capacity, 2017)About 33%
of Generation capacity comes under the states, 25 % under the Central
Government and the rest in private sector, which is now substantially
increasing role, thanks to new policies of the Government that gives increasing
thrust to Mega projects and Renewable sector with private partnership. Vertically integrated State Electricity Boards and
private utilities exist in Indian power sector where electricity is a
concurrent subject as both the center and state governments have definite role
in evolving direction and guidelines. But it is sad
fact the power theft has not been given due importance in the scheme of things.
India has approximately 6-10%
shortage in energy demand and the peak demand deficiency in some states is
nearly 25%, compels the Load Despatch Centres to throttle down resulting brown
out everyday peak period. About 80% of
the villages are electrified but it doesn’t mean that all households are
benefited. The Transmission and Distribution losses are restricted to around
10% in better managed utilities in the developed countries. Of the every 100
units generated in India, 35 units are lost on an average due to technical and
non-technical losses. (Power Sector, 2017) This staggering
figure 77% in some states! This sorry state hinges as much on inadequate
development of transmission and distribution lines as on other factors
including Power theft and irrational tariff structure.
Raising tariff
even for good reasons may not go well with the people. The distribution
companies take care not to antagonize the public as they know the proclivities
of the public. People are happy if a utility charges less and ready to overlook
the poor standards and service they receive. This is the basic attitude of the
middle class Indians which forms the majority of electricity consumers. Perhaps
this might have prompted to play safe by keeping current charges low thus
making it difficult to go for the necessary upgrading of lines and renovations
which requires huge investments. It is a sad fact that the Power sector is concentrated
mainly on increasing generation capabilities resulting in increased capital
cost rather than loss reduction exercise
which includes implementation of a mechanism to thwart power pilfering..
The distribution loss in India has increased
by 432% over a period of about a quarter of a century due to the reasons
explained above. No country can claim a fair position as far as losses are
concerned. The approximate cost of the distribution loss for the last quarter
century comes to around $100 Billion. India has adopted the European system of
drawing more Low-Tension lines, thanks to the British rule, which passed on
certain technical legacies along with culture and arts!. Many European
countries are very small, even smaller than majority of Indian states. Hence
their distribution loss is considerably low.
How have we
reached here? Theft of energy is the major singular cause of all disorders and
problems in power utilities. The money value involved in theft is about $4.5 Billion
dollar i.e., about 1.5% of GDP as per the statistics of the World Bank, few
years back. [Bhatia & Gulati, 2004] Poverty drives many to steal electricity and they form a majority,
while a few consider it as a white collar theft. (Prashar, & Sreenivasan, ,2015)
Delhi, the capital city, stands out as the worst case of power theft. As much
as 45% of the power generated was lost in the capital even after 2-3 years of
private participation .Now it has been brought down substantially but few
Divisions under BRPL and BYPL are
notorious for 40-60% loss.
What stops
utilities from eliminating Power theft? Vested interests of the stake holders
including appeasing vote bank, consumers, utility employees, poor enforcement
of law, habit of utilities to compound the power theft cases, prolonged
litigation and, of course, the socio- political situations. The poor
performance of state owned utilities in reduction of loss is due to weak
accountability, poor governance and inadequate investment. They have little
incentives to improved performance and any hard work goes unappreciated.
Private participation has raised hope of better efficiency and accountability .However,
it turns out that privatization of power sector is not a panacea for eliminating power
theft.
India
is world’s sixth largest energy consumer, accounting 3.4% of global energy
consumption. Due to its economic rise, the demand for energy has grown at an
average of 3.6%per annum over the past three decades. Distribution loss of Indian
Power sector, having long low tension lines, is ‘surrogate’ to Power Theft. [Steadman, 2011] Even after engaging the Central Industrial Security
Force (CISF), Delhi continues to enjoy the status of ‘capital of Power theft in
India’ and here even 20% AT&C loss is considered as fair. The problem of
corruption and vested electoral interest
have prodded authorities to turn a blind eye to theft of power and many go Scot free if they are very close to ”power”.
The erstwhile Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking was fed up with Power theft at the
connivance of employees. Now the power distribution has private participation.
When the new power companies have started conducting surprise inspections to
detect power theft, the unscrupulous people have shown signs of panic.
It
is estimated that about 777 Million units of electricity is being pilfered in
Hyderabad city, the cyber capital of India, in a year alone.(Sreenivasan,2017)
The cost works out to $ 75 Million.In some part of the city designated as ‘’sensitive,”
less as 50% of the consumers pay electricity charges, even though thousands of
electricity meters are installed on poles. Here, professional power theft
perpetrators are available who perform tampering of energy meter either permanent
or temporary nature. The Power sleuths in India has the credit of detecting
more than 75 varieties of high-tech Power theft in India in Electronic meters,
though these meters are claimed to have state- of-the- art technology. Remotely
operated Power theft, Frequency manipulation, Theft using Electro-static
discharge (ESD) on energy meter, Harmonics and other spurious signal
injections, umpteen methods of hardware tampering on energy meters are few
methods to mention. (Sreenivasan, 2017) The power sector all over the world is
closely observing new products that meet the challenges raised by the
perpetrators and recently an Indian Company has found a partial solution to Power theft using
Electro-static discharge in high end meters.A lot more is expected from meter
manufacturers all over the world.
Even
meters installed in substations are not spared by perpetrators. The feeders of a Sub- station in Musafar Nagar,
a city in North India were tampered with a remote operated shunt. The Substation
was feeding power supply to steel furnace factories nearby. The raid was
conducted under the leadership of the Minister and found energy meter- not at the
consumers’ premises, but at the Substation- was tampered with modern-day technology,
reminding us the usage that ‘fence itself eating the crop’. This may be a joint
effort of many who wanted to sabotage the energy audit system also.
In
Punjab, Power theft is rampant in border districts especially for operation of
tube wells and steel re-rolling mills which are current intensive in nature.
Unfortunately, any officer who puts an effort to tackle this menace invites
transfer, harassment, victimisation and a host of troubles .Farmers have been
provided with subsidized or free electricity through out the country and it is one
of the zones where electricity theft and misuse are maximum. In the state of Punjab,
when the technicians of utility went to attend a fuse off call from a consumer,
were surprised to find that even the Distribution Transformer (DT) was stolen for
its metal parts to be sold after taking them apart in scrap market . This
is not an instance of isolation.
If we
think that power theft is a rural phenomenon or only prevalent in slums, we are
for a rude shock. In Mumbai City alone, irregularities involving 1280 Million
units were detected in 3 years. Even the constitutionally recognized bodies
such as Zilla, Taluk and Gram Panchayath (Local self Government) in Bangalore
are reported to have performed power theft sending a shock message to the
society! Even the small state of J&K
is losing $ 0.25 Million a day by way of energy theft. With the onset of winter,
the energy consumption moves up by 20%.The resort to unscrupulous method is
rampant even among the people at the topmost rung of the society who have
developed meanest trick of pilferage according to the Power Development
Department. The department has no effective Anti Power theft squad but a few
officials who could not unearth even a small fraction of abnormality.
Pilferage of
power in the name of religion is taken for granted in India. It occurs during
almost all festivals, irrespective of the community or the state. A report says
97% of the organizers of festivals in Maharashtra State commit power theft.
It’s very difficult to detect power theft during that time, as all devotees
gather and attack the enforcement officials, as if the officials are from other
communities or an atheist deliberately
disturbing the festival. Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company
(MSEDCL) has gone to the extent of advising various organizations that conduct
festivals, not to venture into theft during the time of festivals. Usually the
light and sound contractors arrange generators for temporary use; but they seldom
operate them, instead venture into stealing electricity.
General
elections are yet another occasion to perform power theft in India. The police
are pre occupied with keeping the law and order and usually the menace of Power
theft goes unnoticed. In Tamil Nadu, during general election the venue of a
leader’s campaign spot was illuminated with about 300 fluorescent lamps. The
party had stolen electricity using hooks to add colour and light to the huge
hoardings and stages and also to display the huge election symbols which are
decorated with small bulbs. When top leaders come to political meetings, an
engineer is used to be posted at the place to ensure uninterrupted supply of
stolen power! In India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, large scale Power
theft is reported during general election time. Another significant aspect is
the abnormal use of electricity for agriculture purpose during these times, a
clear indication of misuse and theft. This has been done with the connivance of
local leaders of ruling party.( Golden & Min, 2012)
The
abduction of an engineer belonging to a utility from one of the North Eastern
states forced the utility to postpone the implementation of a plan to revamp
collection procedure. This happened when
the utility was just about to collect arrears and check power theft. In order
to boost the morale of the employees, a Managing Director and Senior officers
of a power Utility in North India, who decided to have first hand information
of theft detection had to face unruly mob and to retreat after stone pelting .A
senior Power sleuth in the Cyber city of Hyderabad had to seek police
protection even after his retirement from service, following continual threat
of perpetrators
The mighty people and even the law
makers indulge in theft of electricity. The Indian laws are stringent to punish the guilty in the case of
electricity theft but the time spend to conclude a case is too long. The state
of affairs in Power theft is pennywise and pound foolish. As the law permits to
compound the offence, its magnitude comes down to the level a petty traffic
violation case, where discharge of offence can be done by paying a small penalty.
Utilities across India have not treated power theft seriously the way it should
be. The reply to RTI to Discoms across India yielded poor responses and many
utilities even do not have the statistics of theft detected.
Indian
power sector is crippled by theft on one side and misuse on the other side.
Energy wasted in daily life on account of less efficient electrical appliances
is shocking. The simple guesstimate of waste and power theft says even the best
stabilizers are only 80% energy efficient. Considering 10 million odd Air
Conditioners in India, which are in operation for 5 hrs a day, the loss would
be 20 MU per day! And the annual loss would be $600 Million!!. With 314 GW power generation capacity, the energy available per
day will be 5275 Million units at 0.7 plf of which 20-25% ie. 1055 Million Units
of electricity is lost by way of Power theft every day causing annual loss of 6.5 Billion to the exchequer!
Energy meters are no more
instruments for recording electricity consumption. Consumer Metering and feeder
metering are one of the key approaches
to reduce losses and theft, coupled with the replacement of the conventional
electro mechanical meters with new electronic meters and the deployment of
state-of-the-art emerging technologies such as, AMR and AMI etc.to assist in
loss reduction and improved revenue collection. This may be more intensively
done with the aid of centrally aided Schemes and the requirements of energy
meters in coming decade will be more than of 100 million. The possibility of
rolling out smart meter technology is yet another way of controlling power
theft.Utilitiles are different in nature in India and hence the strategy to
reduce theft also varies. There should not be a common system thrust upon to
Discoms as strategy to reduce theft in one utility need not be successful in
another. Unless 100 % consumers are metered and electricity at various
distribution points are monitored, the Discoms can never think of attaining a
healthy financial status.
Conclusion
The above instances are only tip of the ice berg. Many utilities, now at a snail's pace, realize
the need to control Power theft, lest they should fall into darkness. Various
training to power engineers are being arranged and regularly updates them with
latest happening around the world. But crooks always have the ability to stay
one step ahead of the anti power theft detection system. They stay in their
business purely through their flair to circumvent any challenge that comes their
way. The R&D of electricity theft is moving faster than the best metering
system available in the world, which was revolutionized with the advent of ICs
and programmable logic circuits. India is now aiming at application of
Information Technology in Power sector especially for controlling Power theft
and losses. The R&D units of meter manufacturers have a great role to play
in designing tamper resistant energy meters with more features to withstand the
challenges from field. The repercussion of privatization on long run is not
clear as of now and the present indication points finger that privatization is
not the single remedy to control power theft. As the Indian power sector has
now realized need of controlling power theft incorporating latest technology,
it can be brought back to the right track and effective laws and updated theft
detection system with the aid of modern power system tools would help control
power Theft.(The author can be contacted
tamperfinder@gmail.com)
References
Bhatia,
B., Gulati, M.[2004]. Reforming the Power Sector: Controlling Electricity Theft
and Improving Revenue. Public Policy for the Private Sector Note 272, World
Bank, Washington, DC.
CEA-Installed
Capacity.(2017).Cea.nic.in. Retrieved 11 February
2017, from http://www.cea.nic.in/monthlyinstalledcapacity.html
Golden, M. & Min, B. (2012). Theft and Loss of Electricity in an Indian State. Seattle:
International Growth Centre
http://powermin.nic.in/, Ministry
of Power, Government of India
Parashar, A. and Sreenivasan, G. (2015)
Power Theft and Glorification of Crime by Indian Media –A Case study based on
the campaign organized by India Against Corruption [IAC] in Delhi, THE
DISCUSSANT, Journal of Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice, Jan—Mar
2015 Vol.3 No.1,Pp 47-54
Power
sector (2017).
Retrieved 11 February 2017, from http://www.icra.in/Files/ticker/SH-2014-Q4-1-ICRA-Power.pdf
Rengarajan.S
& Loganathan.S[2012] Power Theft Prevention and Power Quality Improvement
using Fuzzy Logic, International Journal of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering (IJEEE) ISSN (PRINT): 2231 – 5284, Vol-1, Issue-3
Sreenivasan, G,Power
Theft(2016) M/s PHI Learning (P) Ltd,New Delhi.
Steadman,
K. U.[2011] Essays
on electricity theft, Essays on electricity theft,
State University of New York at Binghamton,Retreived from http:// www.binghamton.
edu...spectus-by-k-steadman.pdf
.[Courtesy-IEEMA Journal.,March 2017]
Tuesday 27 September 2016
Solar Power-A single solution for Power sector issues??
Solar power curtailment
in Tamil Nadu is mostly due to Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation (TANGEDCO) opting to buy cheaper power from the exchanges at Rs
3/kwh rather than paying Rs 7.01/kwh to independent producers/developers with
whom it has signed agreements, according to a report by Mercom Capital Group.
Curtailment refers to energy produced that is not taken up by the grid.
The average market clearing
price in July was just Rs. 2.16 on the Indian Energy Exchange, a 7 per cent
drop month-over-month, the research firm said in its India Solar Quarterly
Market Update.
Spike in generation
The increase in renewable
energy addition has caused some solar power curtailment issues in Rajasthan and
Tamil Nadu where discoms (distribution companies) have flouted the ‘must run’
status of solar power, thereby negatively affecting developers, as per the
report.
Mercom said the problem was
more pronounced in Tamil Nadu, especially in high wind energy density areas
when wind and solar generation peak simultaneously.
Earlier this month, The
Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission had asked TANGEDCO to technically
justify why it had asked solar power plants to back down from the grid, in a
petition filed by the National Solar Energy Federation of India.
A senior official from
TANGEDCO said that cheaper power gets picked up first. “There is no must-run
status to solar as in the case of wind. The utility is buying almost 3,500 MW
of cheap wind power.
“So with renewables itself,
we have this system of picking up the cheapest,” he added.
In Tamil Nadu, solar
projects commissioned before March 2016 has a tariff of Rs 7.01 per kwh, while
projects commissioned after April 2016 has a tariff of Rs. 5.10 per kwh.
Mercom also said any solar
project development in Tamil Nadu was at the developer’s own risk. “Unless
things change drastically, we advise investors to stay away from the State,” it
said.
Tangedco is also gearing up
to launch a tender for procuring 500 MW of solar power through competitive
bidding.
Asked whether the current
curtailment issue would hurt the tender process, the TANGEDCO official said
cheaper power gets better evacuation.
“Solar power at Rs. 5.10 is
now getting priority evacuation ahead of the power that costs Rs. 7.01 a unit.”
TANGEDCO has managed to buy
power at a significantly lower rate of Rs. 3/kwh[The Hindu]
Tuesday 5 July 2016
Energy Conservation in fans using inverter technology
Inverter technology uses a variable speed compressor motor similar
to a car. It simply slows down and speeds up as needed to hold a selected
comfort setting. Inverter technology provides a more precise room
temperature without the temperature fluctuations of fixed speed systems.
Air
Conditioners are a pain point for most people in our country who are concerned
about their electricity bills. The moment an air conditioner is added to the
list of appliances used in a household, the electricity bills increase
significantly. Although it is difficult to significantly reduce the “big”
impact of an air conditioner on your electricity bills, but still some of it
can be managed by choosing the right technology, doing the right
installation/maintenance/operation and by doing the right insulation of the
room where the air conditioner is used (more details in our articles listed at
the end of this article). When it comes to technology, there were not many
available till sometime back. When BEE actively started analyzing and labelling
the air conditioners, we got some good one in form of 5 star air conditioners.
The latest and the most efficient technology that is available in market today
is the Inverter Technology for air conditioners. Inverter technology is
designed in such a way that it can save 30-50% of electricity (units consumed)
over a regular air conditioner. How does an air conditioner work?
What is benefit of Inverter Technology?
Are Inverter technology air conditioners slow in cooling?
What is benefit of Inverter Technology?
Are Inverter technology air conditioners slow in cooling?
For most people, air conditioner just throws cool air at the temperature
one sets it at. But does it really work that way? In fact air conditioner
during cooling process, takes the indoor air, cools it by passing it through
evaporator and throws it back in the room. It is quite opposite to how our good
old air coolers used to work. Air coolers used to take outside air, cool it
with water and throw it in. But air conditioners just work on internal air.
Along with evaporator air conditioner also has a compressor that
compresses the gas (refrigerant) in the AC to cool it that in turn cools the
incoming internal air from the room.
The compressor is either off or on. When it is on, it works at full
capacity and consumes full electricity it is designed to consume. When the
thermostat reaches the temperature level set in the AC, the compressor stops
and the fan (in AC) continues to operate. When the thermostat senses that the
temperature has increased, the compressor starts again.
In an Air
Conditioner with Inverter Technology:
The inverter technology works like an accelerator in a car. When
compressor needs more power, it gives it more power. When it needs less power,
it gives less power. With this technology, the compressor is always on, but
draws less power or more power depending on the temperature of the incoming air
and the level set in the thermostat. The speed and power of the compressor is adjusted
appropriately. This technology was developed in Japan and is being used there
successfully for air conditioners and refrigerators. This technology is
currently available only in split air conditioners.
Every
air conditioner is designed for a maximum peak load. So a 1.5ton AC is designed
for a certain size of room and 1 ton for a different size. But not all rooms
are of same size. A regular air conditioner of 1.5ton capacity will always run
at peak power requirement when the compressor is running. An air conditioner
with inverter technology will run continuously but will draw only that much
power that is required to keep the temperature stable at the level desired. So
it kind of automatically adjusts its capacity based on the requirement of the
room it is cooling. Thus drawing much less power and consuming lesser units of
electricity.
Although
air conditioner with Inverter Technology adjusts its capacity based on the room
requirement, it is very important to install a right sized air conditioner in a
room. Please make sure that you evaluate the room and air conditioner capacity
before you make a purchase. Keep watching for this space as we are in process
of creating a comparator for electricity savings in various air conditioners.
Several
people have concerns that Inverter Technology air conditioners do not cool well
or cool slowly. However let us take this image as reference to understand how
inverter AC works:
Non inverter ACs are fixed speed ACs, where as inverter ACs are variable
speed ACs. Non inverter ACs have compressors that go “On” and “Off”. Whereas
inverter ACs have compressors that are “On” all the time. As non inverter ACs
are sized for peak summer heat load, they are over-sized all the other times
(in fact most of the time people oversize even for peak summer season). The
drawback of the same is that the AC “Over cools” most of the time. So if you
set AC at temperature of 25, it will cool it down to 23 or 22. Now one would
question: then what is the use of thermostat? Well the thermostat (in a non
inverter AC) switches off the compressor when the outside temperature has
reached 25. But a lot has happened before that. In an AC, refrigerant moves
from liquid to gas (by taking heat from the room) and then back from gas to
liquid as the compressor compresses it. But if the refrigerant is more and heat
in the room is less (which happens in over sized AC), it does not get enough
heat from the room to convert from liquid to gas and it keeps moving as liquid.
Now when the thermostat detects temperature and switches off the compressor,
the refrigerant still remains in liquid state and thus has capacity to take
heat from room to convert to gas. And so it takes more heat from the room and
cools the room below the set temperature.
In comparison, the inverter tech AC changes the flow rate of refrigerant
based on the heat of the room. When heat is less, the flow rate is less, when
heat is more, the flow rate is more. And it does not switch off the compressor
ever. It just makes sure that if temperature setting is 25, it is maintained at
that level.
So the difference is: non inverter AC would over cool as shown in the
picture. Whereas inverter AC will cool optimum. And thus one may feel that
inverter AC does not cool or is slow.
Lesser known benefits of Inverter Technology
§ Regular
motors need 3-4 times more current (more than running current) at startup. So
the inverter/generator size needed to run any AC or Refrigerator increases
significantly. But Inverter Technology air conditioners and refrigerators have
variable speed motors that start up gradually needing much lesser current at
startup. Thus the size of inverter/generator required to startup is less. For
e.g. A 1.5 ton fixed speed AC that runs at about 10 Amp current may need up to
30 Amp current at startup and thus a 5 kVA inverter/generator. But an inverter
technology Air Conditioner needs about 6-7 Amp current and not much more at
startup and thus a 1.5 kVA or 2 kVA inverter/generator is good enough to
support it.
§ Regular
motors have much lower power factor. In commercial and industrial connections
there is penalty for low power factor and rebates for higher power factor. An
inverter technology motor will have power factor close to unity (or 1) which
not only results in lesser electricity consumption but also help get rebates on
better power factor.
§ If you are
planning to use Solar PV for air conditioner, then it is the best to use
inverter technology air conditioner or refrigerator as it not only reduces the
size of PV panels because it consumes lesser electricity, it also reduces the
size of inverter to be put along with the PV panel.
Inverter ACs are
20-30% efficient as compared to same EER fixed speed AC model. So if you find
an inverter AC with EER of 3.3 then it is comparable to a fixed speed AC of EER
3.3/0.8 = 4.12 …. now most inverter ACs are efficient than BEE 5 star rated
ACs, but some are not. For e.g if you get an inverter tech AC of EER 2.9 then
its equivalent AC would be one with EER of 3.63. Now that AC would be a BEE 5
star rated one, but still you can get BEE 5 star rated AC with EER as high as
3.9. So it is not always that inverter tech AC is efficient than BEE 5 star
rated AC.
BEE star rated does
get updated every year as the efficiencies improve. We hope that soon BEE will
include inverter ACs in the star rating as well. And then it will remove all
ambiguity (Inverter Tech Refrigerators are already included in BEE star
rating). What sized model are you looking for? We can suggest you some models
that have high EER.
ACs
are designed to cool enclosed space. So when you use an AC in a room you should
keep the doors and windows closed (unlike a desert cooler). Even when sizing is
done, it is done considering the volume of air to be cooled. Now if your
kitchen is connected to the hall the AC will also try to cool the air in the
kitchen. So for sizing the AC you will also have to consider the volume of the
kitchen. Also kitchen will involve cooking which will increase the heat load on
the AC.
Now
fixed speed ACs have constant Energy Efficiency Ratio …. while inverter ACs
have variable energy efficiency ratio. Inverter ACs are more efficient when
they are running at lower capacities and less efficient when they are running
at capacities higher than the marketing capacity or tonnage. If you have sized
your AC as per your hall without including the kitchen then the inverter AC
will always run at capacity higher than the marketing capacity and thus it will
not provide you electricity savings that you expect. And that is why we
suggested you to go for BEE 5 star rated AC as it will run at constant energy
efficiency.
Mostly
when the AC is sized for peak summer, it is sized in such a way that it can
bring down the temperature to 25 degrees. And 25 degrees is the temperature in
thermostat which is there on the internal unit of the AC (some ACs from
bluestar have ifeel technology in which the thermostat is in the remote instead
of the IDU). Now if in peak summer it can bring down temperature to 25, other
times in the year it should be able to bring it down lower. Now when
temperature of the air near IDU is 25, the room temperature will be about 26
(with good air circulation). If the circulation is not good then it can be
higher as well.
Now
I did not understand what you meant by AC is throwing cooling in between 10-12
degrees. All I can say is as long as the AC is able to make your room comfortable,
it should be good. If your expectation is that it should bring down the room
temperature to 16 or 18, then it will be difficult. It can happen only at
nights when the heat load is less. But it should certainly bring down the room
temperature to 24-25 which is more than comfortable. If it is not doing that,
then there is a problem in the AC.
As
far as current is concerned, Inverter AC starts with 0 and increases to highest
current (9 amp in your case) and then settles to a stable current (most
probably 6.77 in your case). If it is continuously consuming 9 Amp then it
means that the AC is not cooling properly or is undersized. Improper
installation can also cause improper cooling.[Courtesy]
Sunday 27 December 2015
LOW LOSS CONDUCTOR CABLE An answer to high T&D losses
In the process of supplying electricity to
consumers, technical losses occur naturally and consist mainly of power
dissipation in electricity system components such as transmission and
distribution (T&D) lines, transformers, and measurement systems. T & D
losses have I2R losses as a major component, and if one can reduce the
resistance,the losses can be reduced.So, while resistance depends upon metal
area and its resistivity,there is a need to improve both without changing the
physical area of the conductor. This is besides improving compaction % i.e.
Metal area/Physical area. Also, normal compacted conductors have a compaction
of 87-91% causing a limit on metal area that can be fitted inside the physical
area. These issues have been sorted by a unique design using 2 layers of
trapezoidal wires. The electricity sector in India had an installed capacity of
205.34 Gigawatt (GW) as of June 2012, the world's fifth largest. Captive power
plants generate an additional 31.5 GW. Thermal power plants constitute 66% of
the installed capacity, hydroelectric about 19% and rest being a combination of
wind, small hydro, biomass, waste-to-electricity, and nuclear. India generated
855 BU (855 000 MU i.e. 855 TWh) electricity during 2011-12 The per capita
average annual domestic electricity consumption in India in 2009 was 96 kWh in
rural areas and 288 kWh in urban areas for those with access to electricity, in
contrast to the worldwide per capita annual average of 2600 kWh and 6200 kWh in
the European Union. India's total domestic, agricultural and industrial per
capita energy consumption estimates vary depending on the source. Two sources
place it between 400 to 700 kWh in 2008–2009. As of January 2012, one report
stated that the per capita total consumption in India to be 778 kWh. In terms
of fuel, coal-fired plants account for 56% of India's installed electricity
capacity, compared to South Africa's 92%; China's 77%; and Australia's 76%.
After coal, renewal hydropower accounts for 19%, renewable energy for 12% and
natural gas for about 9%. Further, the 17th electric power survey of India
report claims: In December 2011, over 300 million Indian citizens had no access
to electricity. Over one third of India's rural population lacked electricity,
as did 6% of the urban population. Of those who did have access to electricity
in India, the supply was intermittent and unreliable.
In 2010, blackouts and power shedding
interrupted irrigation and manufacturing across the country. The per capita
average annual domestic electricity consumption in India in 2009 was 96 kWh in
rural areas and 288 kWh in urban areas for those with access to electricity, in
contrast to the worldwide per capita annual average of 2600 kWh and 6200 kWh in
the European Union. India's total domestic, agricultural and industrial per
capita energy consumption estimates vary depending on the source. Two sources
place it between 400 to 700 kWh in 2008–2009. As of January 2012, one report stated
that the per capita total consumption in India to be 778 kWh.
DEMAND TRENDS As in previous
years, during the year 2010–11, the demand for electricity in India far
outstripped availability, both in terms of base load energy and peak
availability. Base load requirement was 861,591 (MU[) against availability of
788,355 MU, a 8.5% deficit. During peak loads, the demand was for 122 GW
against availability of 110 GW, a 9.8% shortfall. In a May 2011 report, India's
Central Electricity Authority anticipated, for 2011–12 year, a base load energy
deficit and peaking shortage to be 10.3% and 12.9% respectively. The peaking
shortage would prevail in all regions of the country, varying from 5.9% in the
NorthEastern region to 14.5% in the Southern Region. India also expects all
regions to face energy shortage varying from 0.3% in the North-Eastern region
to 11.0% in the Western region. India's Central Electricity Authority expects a
surplus output in some of the states of Northern India, those with
predominantly hydropower capacity, but only during the monsoon months. In these
states, shortage conditions would prevail during winter season. According to
this report, the five states with largest power demand and availability, as of
May 2011, were Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and
Gujarat.
According to 17th EPS
Over 2010–11, India's industrial
demand accounted for 35% of electrical power requirement, domestic household
use accounted for 28%, agriculture 21%, commercial 9%, public lighting and other
miscellaneous applications accounted for the rest. The electrical energy demand
for 2016–17 is expected to be at least 1392 Tera Watt Hours, with a peak
electric demand of 218 GW. The electrical energy demand for 2021–22 is expected
to be at least 1915 Tera Watt Hours, with a peak electric demand of 298 GW.
Also, if the current average transmission and distribution average losses is
around 32% then India needs to add about 135 GW of power generation capacity,
before 2017, to satisfy the projected demand after losses. Item Value Date
Reported Total Installed Capacity (GW) Available base load supply (MU) Demand
base load (MU) Demand base load (GW) Available base load supply (GW) 201.64
837374 118.7 933741 136.2 April 2012 May 2011 May 2011 May 2011 May 2011
Electricity sector capacity and availability in India (excludes
McKinsey claims that India's
demand for electricity may cross 300 GW, earlier than most estimates. To
explain their estimates, they point to four reasons: sterlitetechnologies.com
India's manufacturing sector is likely to grow faster than in the past Domestic
demand will increase more rapidly as the quality of life for more Indians
improve About 125,000 villages are likely to get connected to India's
electricity grid Currently blackouts and load shedding artificially suppresses
demand; this demand will be sought as revenue potential by power distribution
companies THE CAUSE FOR LOSSES A demand of 300GW will require about 400 GW of
installed capacity, McKinsey notes. The extra capacity is necessary to account
for plant availability, infrastructure maintenance, spinning reserve and
losses. India currently suffers from a major shortage of electricity generation
capacity, even though it is the world's fourth largest energy consumer after
United States, China and Russia. The International Energy Agency estimates
India needs an investment of at least $135 billion to provide universal access
of electricity to its population. The International Energy Agency estimates
India will add between 600 GW to 1200 GW of additional new power generation
capacity before 2050. This added new capacity is equivalent to the 740 GW of
total power generation capacity of European Union (EU- 27) in 2005. The
technologies and fuel sources India adopts, as it adds this electricity
generation capacity, may make significant impact to global resource usage and
environmental issues. India's network losses exceeded 32% in 2010 including
non-technical losses, compared to world average of less than 15%. Both
technical and non-technical factors contribute to these losses, but quantifying
their proportions is difficult. Some experts estimate that technical losses are
about 15% to 20%, a high proportion of non‐technical losses are caused by
illegal tapping of lines, but faulty electric meters that underestimate actual
consumption also contribute to decrease in payment collection. A case study in
Kerala estimated that replacing faulty meters could reduce distribution losses
from 34% to 29%.
In 2010, electricity losses in India during
transmission and distribution were about 24%, while losses because of consumer
theft or billing deficiencies added another 10–15%. Power cuts are common
throughout India and the consequent failure to satisfy the demand for
electricity has adversely effected India's economic growth. SUSTAINABLE OPTIMAL
REDUCTION OF TECHNICAL LOSSES Optimization of technical losses in electricity
transmission and distribution grids is an engineering issue, involving classic
tools of power systems planning and modeling. The driving criterion is
minimization of the net present value (sum of costs over the economic life of
the system discounted at a representative rate of return for the business) of
the total investment cost of the transmission and distribution system coupled
with the total cost of technical losses.Technical losses are valued at
generation costs. Technical losses represent an economic loss for the country,
and its optimization should be performed from a country's perspective,
regardless of the institutional organization of the sector and ownership of
operating electricity utilities. LOSSES - RESISTIVE Transmitting electricity at
high voltage reduces the fraction of energy lost to resistance, which averages
around 7%. For a given amount of power, a higher voltage reduces the current
and thus the resistive losses in the conductor. For example, raising the
voltage by a factor of 10 reduces the current by a corresponding factor of 10
and therefore the I2R losses by a factor of 100, provided the same sized
conductors are used in both cases. Even if the conductor size (cross-sectional
area) is reduced 10-fold to match the lower current the I2R losses are still
reduced 10-fold. Long distance transmission is typically done with overhead
lines at voltages of 115 to 1,200 kV. STERLITE's SOLUTION Sterlite ULTRAEFF low
loss MV Power Cables consist of conductor made from very compactly packed
trapezoidal cross-section aluminium strands which are prepared from specially
treated aluminium having improved conductivity, high performance XLPE
insulated, armoured and unarmoured power cables as per IS-7098-PII and
equivalent standards.
METHODS TO REDUCE RESISTANCE As
resistance of a conductor is dependent on resistivity, length and area, we can
improve the resistance by following: Improving the conductivity of aluminium by
annealing and heat treatment. The metal is heat treated for a preset amount of
time at a preset temperature improving the conductivity to 62.5 %. 1) Putting
more metal area in the same physical area by improving the compaction of the
conductor. 2) A stranded circular compacted conductor is made of wires,
stranded and compacted to a form of conductor.Two methods of conductor making
are prevalent: die compaction with a maximum possible compaction of 90-91 %,
Roller compaction for sizes of 240 sq.mm and above with a max possible
compaction of 92- 93%. This leads to presence of air gaps and limits the amount
of metal area that can be put in the same physical area. If trapezoidal wires
are used in place of circular wires, this compaction can be increased to 97 %
increasing the metal area and thus effectively reducing the resistance and
hence the losses. Sterlite with its background in metallurgy and conductor
making adapted this concept for overhead conductors as well as underground cables.
With enhanced conductivity and higher compaction, 300 sq.mm conductor with
trapezoidal wires was produced to have a conductor resistance of 87% value of
that specified by IS 8130.
Lower I2R losses for the
transmission /distribution network for the same transmitted current. Higher
current rating for conductor temperature of 900C. Higher short circuit rating
because of higher metal area in the conductor. CONCLUSION With the extensive
use of electricity, and the wide geographical distribution of users, an
effective transmission and distribution system is essential. The history of
electricity transmission can be dated back to 1883, when Thomas Edison first
introduced an economically viable model for generating and distributing
electric power. Edison's greatest achievement was perhaps not the invention of
the light bulb or any other single application, but the universally applicable
electricity transmission system which has lit up the whole world. Modern
electrical transmission and distribution systems are the result of
conscientious efforts and design skills of engineers to ensure high energy
efficiency and safety. Thus, high energy efficiency means the loss of power
through transmission is minimized.[ Pranav Vasani is Head –
Quality Assurance, Power Cables Business, Sterlite Technology & courtesy-sterlitetechnologies.com]
Wednesday 14 May 2014
Accuracy of Energy Meters
Reliable
and accurate metering system is a vital link between a power utility and
consumer, acquiring more significance day by day. In terms of Electricity Act
2003, CEA has notified a metering code for all the utilities to adopt
appropriate metering technologies together with various associated methods to
reduce commercial losses. Hence it is pertinent that the power utilities have
to upgrade their metering system with the state-of-art technologies which are
accessible, for reducing losses, improving financial status and better load
management.
It is a standard
utility practice to test consumer's metering equipments in situ and has many
advantages over laboratory tests .The meters need not be de- installed and
transported to other locations in order for the necessary tests to be
performed. This is particularly important for transformated metering
installations. If the measuring circuit is faulty the electricity meter
receives voltages and currents which differ phase and/or amplitude from those
it would receive. Faults may occur when metering equipments are under ongoing
operation also. The surest way to find such faults is to check the meter as
well as the associated instrument transformers.
The specification
of LT, HT and EHT metering system in India are based on the guidelines of
Central Electricity Authority (Installation and operation) Regulations (2006)
which are already in practice all over India. Few area where electricity
metering needs attention are
1 3 phase 3 wire measurement system instead of
3 phases 4 wire meter.
2 Poor accuracy standards of Instrument transformers and Energy meters.
3. Installation of same rated CTs irrespective of contract demand.
1. Effects
of selection of higher burden values of
instrument transformers than actually required.
It can be seen that at many
instances the burden of CT is very high when compared to that of the associated
metering equipment. (2-2.5VA).In EHT consumers, a slightly higher burden can be
expected for pilot wires. However, a very high burden of instrument transformer
gives a prima facie indication that the CT is not working in the defined
accuracy range described in the IS. For eg. for a 20VA CT with a secondary
current of 1A, the load must be 20 Ohm.
If only 3 Ohm loop resistance and digital relays with almost 0 Ohm impedance is
connected, the accuracy may be outside specification since the accuracy is only
guaranteed when the load is nominal (20 Ohm) or 1/4 of the nominal load (5
Ohm).Using CTs of burden values higher than required is unscientific since it
leads to inaccurate reading (meter) or inaccurate sensing of fault / reporting conditions.
Basically, such high value of design burden extends saturation characteristics
of CT core leading to likely damage to the meter connected across it under
overload conditions.
The CTs designed with a
particular burden connected with lower burden application results to erroneous measurements.
With the advent in technology, the burden of individual instrument has come
down considerably.
It can be
seen that for indoor CTs, though the
burden(VA) specified for the metering Core is 10-15 VA, it is unlikely to
exceed even 3 VA. Hence, it is suggested that the rated Burden for the Metering
Core of the CT may be a standard value as close to the connected Burden as possible. Even though a
direct conversion of this abnormality into loss is not accurately estimated, a
marginal error of 0.25 % results into a
substantial loss of revenue .
2) Adverse effect of using 3 phase 3 wire meters instead 3 phase 4
wire meters
Three phase three wire System of power measurement is in vogue in many
utilities .This is two watt meter system of power measurement in which current of
R& B phases are measured along with three line voltage. This system
measures energy accurately both in balanced and unbalanced load conditions
provided there is no neutral current flow. This system is just right so long as
the conditions behind it are meticulously followed. However field conditions
are entirely different. The present day practice of using star-star solidly
earthed transformer permits the consumer to load on each phases heavily (for eg. single phase furnaces etc.) thus making erroneous reading, as current in Y
phase of high voltage side is not recorded. If the consumer is intelligent
enough to add single phase load deliberately at Y phase in above such
condition, it is as good as a power pilferage situation. If a three phase four
wire system is adopted, this tricky condition can be avoided. More ever, when
CT/PT units of one phase becomes faulty, the total consumption of the system
can be arrived more accurately. Hence it is high time for utilities to adopt
three phase four wire system as already done elsewhere to plug the drain of
revenue leakage.
3.
Effects on adoption of Poor accuracy standards of Instrument transformer and Energy
meters.
As per regulations 2, 5,8,12 and 16 of Central Electricity
Authority (Installation and operation) Regulations (2006) and the schedules,
the standards of measuring equipments have been specified. For HT consumers,
class 0.5S or better is specified where as for EHT consumers its Class 0.2
S. The accuracy class of Current Transformers and Voltage transformers shall not
be inferior to that of associated metes. The regulation states that the
existing CTs and VTs not complying with these standards shall be replaced by
new CTs and VTs. Thus the regulation is very specific in defining the accuracy
class of both instrument transformer and Meters. However superior an energy
meter may be, if the associated instrument transformers measure the actual
energy with an element of error, the same will be replicated. The current
transformer is Class 0.5 (HT) and Class 1.0 for EHT which is not in line with
the standards of Central Electricity Authority, 2006.Though a direct conversion
of this non compatibility is hard to achieve, revenue loss per month on
installation of lower accuracy class CT and Energy meters on the EHT / HT
consumers are significantly high.
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