Gurgaon: 7,000 power poles in city to go under Smart Grid power project

11KV overhead high tension wire will be laid in an 800km long tunnel

Work on the Smart Grid project, which is aimed at providing uninterrupted electricity to Gurgaon, is scheduled to start later this month.

Power poles dotting city streets are often an eyesore for residents. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

As part of the Smart Grid project, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), a state-run discom, will construct an 800km long tunnel or duct to shift all 11KV overhead high tension electric cables underground. The move is not only aimed at facilitating round-the-clock power supply to the city by 2022, but also beautify the city as a large number of overhead electric cables and over 7,000 electricity poles will be removed from the streets as part of this ambitious project.

The digging work for the duct is to start soon along the main roads in sectors 1-57. The duct will be 1-2 metres deep. The Smart Grid project is also tipped to go a long way in curbing incidents of electricity theft and faults and ensure round-the-clock distribution, a discom official said.

In September 2017, the DHBVN hired two private companies to execute the project.

The 11KV overhead electric cables spans 800km and runs along all the main roads of the city. The wires, supported by 7,000 electricity poles, are often an eyesore for residents and visitors and are also prone to suffering faults during the rainy season.

The 11KV line supplies electricity from substations to transformers from where the retailers (domestic consumption) get household connections.

“All the 7,000 electricity poles supporting the 11KV line will be pulled out of the streets once the cables are shifted to the tunnel. The mazy lines of electric cables overhead will be a thing of the past. Freed of wires, the city will also look a lot better. Unlike the present distribution system, the Smart Grid project will also reduce technical faults, short circuit and pilferage. The state government is committed to supplying uninterrupted power to the city,” Jaideep Fogat, executive engineer, DHBVN, said.

The distribution of electricity and maintenance of power utilities is expected to improve under the Smart Grid project, the DHBVN official said. The present manual maintenance will be replaced by the Supervisory control and data acquisition (Scada), a software with a data base at all 39 substations.

Rajesh Kansal, subdivisional engineer, DHBVN, said, “There will be smart or advance metering and monitoring under the Smart Grid through Scada. We can monitor the utilities from the data base itself and fix a fault without disrupting supply from the substation.

“Now, for instance, if there is a fault in Sector 17, we stop supply from the substation to many areas to rectify the fault manually. It often takes hours to fix the fault and restore normal supply.Scada will update the fault quickly at the data base of the substation concerned and we will be able to easily fix the problem without disrupting supply to other areas.”

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The DHBVN has over 5 lakh consumers, spread across 600 group housing societies, 35 villages, over 50 municipal colonies, 75 unauthorised colonies and in sectors 1-57. Pilferage or power theft has been a big concern for the discom, as it impairs its power distribution and supply by 20-50 per cent.

Sanjiv Chopra, chief engineer, DHBVN, said, “Other than beautifying the city, the other advantage of the Smart Grid is that it will help us put a check on power theft. Once the risk of power theft or pilferage is nullified, we will be able to ensure uninterrupted supply to consumers.”

The total cost of the project has been revised to ₹3,500 crore and it will be completed by 2022.

“Overhead electricity wires pass through trees and often cause short circuits. They make it easy for people to put a hook and draw power illegally. It happens across the city. We need to crack down on this practice to boost supply,” Rambir Singh, a resident of Sector 14, said.