TNEB Reforms 2023
Electricity generation in Tamil Nadu until about 1908 was confined to a few tiny plants in Tea Estates run on waterpower and to a small hydroelectric station at Kattery near Coonoor. The Government Electricity department was created in 1927, with the commissioning of The Basin Bridge thermal power station. A Briton Mr. Greenwood headed it. My friend Mr. Mitter’s father (Mr. Vedachalam) joined him in 1930. The Municipal Corporation was in charge of distribution.
The Pykara Hydroelectric Power Station was constructed by Sir John G. Henry Howard, a British Engineer and the first Chief Electrical Engineer of the then Composite Madras State Electricity Department and commissioned in 1933 with an original installed capacity of 70 MW.
Papanasam Huydroelectric Power station 28MW was commissioned in 1944
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board was constituted with effect from 1st July 1957 under the Electricity Supply Act 1948 and came to be known as “The Madras State Electricity Board” with Padmashri V.P. Appadurai appointed as Chief Engineer (Electricity).
The first Power Grid (for parallel operation) was commissioned at about the same time, when the two hydro stations at Pykara and Papanasam was connected thru a100 kv overhead tie line. In those days there used to be a comic folk song which goes like ‘’குற்றாலத்தில் இடி இடித்தால் கோயம்புத்தூரில் விளக்கு அணையும்”, meaning “for a thunderstorm in Kutralam there will be lights-out at Coimbatore”
The first thermal power plant was commissioned during 1971 at Ennore, Chennai with its first unit of 60 MW capacity. The present installed capacity of TNEB as on1/4/20 was 16000 MW to supply a peak load pf about 15000 MW and daily energy of xx GWH.
The following are a few suggestions for further reforms in TNEB:
- Corruption is proportionate with the size of the organisation. TNEB has so far been a very unwieldy organisation. (As one of the former CE of TNEB told me, the army of TNEB workers can easily invade Sri Lanka and win over them). Even after splitting of TNEB into two organisations, TANGEDCO that takes care of Generation and Distribution will still be very large and unwieldy and hence could still be a minefield for corruption. The way to go will be a further split of TANGEDCO into TANGENCO & TANDISTCO.
- Generation department cannot gel well with Distribution problems unless it happens to be small local generation with diesel sets, gas turbine, wind/water mills and small solar plants. Better TANGENCO, (after it is split from Tangedco) takes care of only Hydro and Thermal generation plants. They have their hands-full scheduling Generation, outages maintenance, fuel availability and hydro resources etc. especially because Hydro resources are literally under the control of irrigation dept of TN
- TANDISTCO, when newly formed, will take care of power supply all consumers from 33kV HT to 400/230V LV consumers. Even here maintaining long 6.6kV & 400 v overhead lines between villages will be a big headache for them. Hence it could be better to leave villages’ electric distribution to local panchayats who can act as value added reseller of power to village households and small cottage industries and manage their own power distribution network. Lightly loaded 400V-Overhead lines between villages, will not be easy to handle.
(This may result in Ease of energy billing and collection This will also give enough impetus ttota India efforts. We may restrict the franchisee to the panchayats and panchayat unions. Even if they want to outsource the same, it will be restricted to the natives of those Unions.)
In TN, there are 1097 towns and 15979 villages as per Census-2011. The corresponding population are 3.5 Cr and 3.7 cr, respectively, totalling to TN population of 7.2 Cr. Average population of Towns works out to 32k. Same for villages is 2.3k. I have made a rough estimate of total domestic consumption of these towns and villagers as 32000 kwh/day and 1000 kwh/day.
- If you leave these villages to manage themselves their electrical distribution network, it will be a win-win situation for both TNEB and these village communities. The village panchayats may become “Licentiates of TNEB’ to supply power. (The advantages – Firming of village power supply which will vastly improve village economy, ease of Oper & Maint and will also lead to Retention of technical talent within the villages)
- I am not sure whether the TNEB engineers have drafted any standard operating procedures (SOP) for various Equipements like Transformers and different switching devices. If not, they can as well prepare some model operating instruction for different equipment and switching devices. Based on this, the operation engineers at different power stations and substations may be asked to draft operation manuals for all the substations under their jurisdiction. Importantly these mannuals should include instructions for the safety of isolation of equipment released for Maintenance. They should also have Safety Manual as which will ensure the safety of operation and maintenance.
- Likewise, I am not sure whether TNEB maintains any record of any record of all major trippings and such occurrences. This report should be prepared later than the occurrence itself. Such reports should be circulated internally to all the operation and maintenance Engineers
- Solar Power: Instead of going in for big Solar Park which may require large amount of space and the subsequent problems of land acquirement and compensation, we may as well encourage these village communities to crowd-source the fund and establish their own smaller solar power devices. For 1000kwhrs/day it will be a very compact device easily manageable by village technicians. They may even combine this, with public toilets and bath facilities for the villagers.
- At one point of time, in late 50s and 60s, TNEB was a Model Electrical Utility for whole of India if not for whole of Asia, Their T & D Handbook, for transmission and distribution, which was first published in 1957 was used by all power engineers of India. It was an excellent effort of TNEB engineers to record their knowledge and experiences in the Power Utility field. Its first edition was published by TNEB Engineers Association in 1957, with the active help from TNEB Management; 5th Edition in 1976 within 19 years; 6th and last Edition in 2002, after 26 years. “The Power Engineers Handbook published by TNEB Engineers Association is well recognized among the practising Electrical Engineers of the country. The Handbook has its origin in the year 1947. The sixth enlarged version was released in 2002.” Already the edition is 19 years old. This means all 21st century development is given a miss in the Handbook. This itself shows the low enthusiasm level of TNEB engineers.
Even now it is not too late. They can start on a new Handbook. This may include chapters on:
- Numerical Relays and Digital Protection
- Substation Control system
- Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
- Principles of Interconnected Grid operation
- Principles of Overall System protection
- Load despatching and System Control Centres
- The trend nowadays is for the tech companies to train the new recruits in their technology and systems for almost a period of one year. Here there is a dilemma. Naturally the company does not want to lose an employee after training. Hence to retain the newly trained they have incentives like Loyalty Bonus and disincentives like suspended increase in salary and promotion, which will be confirmed only if the employee continues in the organisation for one or 2 additional years. All this can be worked out easily, if we make our major recruitments from polytechnics. These technicians, after an year service and after first assessment may be offered to join their own Power Utility Training Institute for a one/two year training programme and at the successful completion of which they may be offered certificate as Graduate-Power-Utility-Training, or Diploma-Power-Utility-Training (GPUT or DPUT), for which TNEB may easily obtain recognition as equivalent to BE degree.
- Hence TNEB should go for a establishing an “Institute of Power Utility Enginering” with the help and involvement TNEB Engineers Association. The teachers and lecturers at this institute should be from the field and not from any academics. The academics may be involved in teaching only as guest lecturers. The institute can start with a basic course as below:
“Diploma course in Power System Operation”
offering One Year Diploma,
for fresh Diploma and Degree holders in Power Engineering
- After the successful implementation of the above course, the Institute can gradually offer the following courses also
“Graduate Course in Power Utility Engineering and Operation”
A graded two-year course
(2 years) for Diploma holders In Power Engineering with 3-years of work Experience
(0ne year) for Degree Holders in Power Engineering with one year of work Experience
offering B. Tech degree in Power Utility Engineering and Operation
Management Diploma Course in “Power Utility Operation and Management”
For Degree Holders in Power Engineering plus 4 years work Experience
For Postgraduates in Power Engineering with One year of work Experience
offering PG Diploma in Power System Management.
(When IETE, Institute of Electronics and Tele-Com Engineers can offer diploma Grad I.E.T.E since last more than 50 years and the Institute of Charted Accountants can conduct exams and offer ACA diploma, why not an Instt of Electrical Utility Engineers Offer similar courses)
I am working on course material and syllabus for these courses.
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OPEN MIND 