The country’s power demand hit an all time high of 1,82,888 MW on Wednesday morning and it was fully met, announced the Power Secretary Sanjiv Sahai in a tweet. This breaks the previous record demand of 1,82,610 MW, he said.

On Wednesday, the government also shared its achievements in the power sector during the year, and said as on November 30, ₹49,457 crore has been released as grant since 2014-15.

Government launched the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) scheme with a total outlay of ₹75,893 crore (DDUGJY: ₹43,033 crore and RE Component: ₹32,860 crore).

Projects with total cost of ₹44,416 crore have been sanctioned in 33 States/ Union Territories. Besides, an additional amount of ₹14,270 crore has been sanctioned for creation of additional infrastructure to support 100 per cent household electrification.

Rural infrastructure

Rural Electricity Infrastructure (including additional infrastructure created for household electrification under DDUGJY and Saubhagya), it said adding that 1,754 nos new sub-stations have been commissioned; 2,142 sub-stations augmented; 5,75,115 distribution transformers installed; 4.91 lakh Kms of LT lines and 2.03 lakh Kms of HT lines (11 KV and 33 KV) erected and 1.22 lakh Kms feeder separation completed.

Besides the metering of 1.48 crore consumers, 2.08 lakh distribution transformers and 13,190 feeders have been completed.

Smart Metering -- In the current financial year, the Ministry of Power has issued guidelines to all States to convert all consumer meters into smart meters in prepaid mode.

Operation of Smart meters in prepaid mode will allow consumers to pay as per their own financial convenience and electricity consumption requirements.

EESL, a JV between CPSUs in the power sector, has been providing smart metering services to various utilities as per MoUs entered into with them.

EESL has also established innovative financing arrangements for the smart metering projects that would enable them to provide smart metering services to discoms without requiring any outright capex funding from the States/Utilities. Apart from installations in NDMC for about 50,000 consumers, EESL has also started installation of Smart meters in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.

It has also worked on tariff rationalisation measures, Budgetary support for flood moderation component and Budgetary support for enabling infrastructure like bridges and roads.

One Nation-One Grid-One Frequency -- During 2020 (upto October 2020), 11,921ckm of transmission lines (220 kV and above) has been added. During the same period, transformation capacity addition is 35,760 MVA, it said.

Setting up of Renewable Energy Management Centre (REMC): To enable forecasting and scheduling of renewable resources and efficient management of intermittent and variable renewable generation.

Transmission projects

Major Transmission Projects were also commissioned in 2020 (till October 31), like Alusteng-Zainakote 220kV D/c transmission line having length of 45 Km was commissioned on February 15 by JKPTCL, which is funded under Prime Minister's Reconstruction Plan (PMRP-2005). With these lines, 220kV Transmission System for inter-connection of Zainakote -Alusteng (Srinagar) - Leh has established 220kV connectivity with Northern Grid and would provide reliable power supply to the strategically important Ladakh region, which is also an area of defence establishment.

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