Power Department Orders Technical Audit, Intensive Maintenance of all sub stations

JAMMU, JULY 23 2021 The Power Department has decided to constitute Circle Level Audit and Protection Teams for technical audit, maintenance and testingof all 66-33/11-6.6kV sub stations in J&K. An order to this effect was issued by Principal Secretary Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal today.

Commenting on the exercise, Principal Secretary, Power Development Department, Rohit Kansal noted that the Power Department has been grappling with a number of legacy issues pertaining to obsolete network, distribution bottlenecks and maintenance particularly preventive maintenance issues. These led to breakdowns in the system causing disruptions in the distribution network and leading to inconvenience to consumers. He termed this initiative by the Department in constituting special technical committees as a first ever effort to address on a sustainable and long term basis the technical shortcomings of the electrical infrastructure in the UT.

 The order issued by the department  asks the newly constituted Protection Team(s)to conduct testing of every existing 66-33/11-6.6kV substation within the jurisdiction of its O&M Circle at least once during a calendar year and immediately after any major fault or addition of any new equipment/relay in thesubstation.

The same order also directs the Protection Teamto not just test and inspect their respective substations but also conduct a technical audit of the sub station about all technical and safety matters such as availability  and functionality of the Electrical Equipment within the sub station, adherence to preventive maintenance schedules, availability of Safety Equipment and Adherence to the Standard operating Procedure (SoP)  for safe working  for handling of outages and for safe working near energized system.

The order also asks the teams to coordinate with the protection teams of the transmission system and ensure the overall healthiness of the electrical network. The order emphasizes various technical steps that need to be taken to ensure that systems are protected against faults and overloading. The testing of equipment including earthing of old stations has also been included in the  scope of the protection team.

It may be recalled that a number of complaints and grievances had been received from the public about frequent breakdowns in the electrical system. Taking cognizance of the same, the department had conducted a detailed exercise to find out the reasons and the technical solution to the problem.

The Chairman JPDCL, Jagmohan Sharma had physically visited a number of substations and receiving stations and inspected them and interacted with the field functionaries. Following his report, it was decided to devise an institutionalized system for an intensive cycle of maintenance of all existing stations so as to ensure adherence to all technical parameters like relay coordination, current and time settings, testing of energy meters and testing/commissioning of other equipment such as Power Transformer/CT/PT/Circuit Breaker/LA/Isolators/Battery Chargers/ Batteries including earthing etc of the newly constructed stations.