Officials at the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation claim that Aerial Bundled Cable technology had failed in the past.
While the state government is trying to prevent power pilferage with the installation of Aerial Bundled Cable or AB Cable, officials at the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) said that it had been a tried and failed technology for them.
Sources at the power department said that in the first phase about 15,000 km of bare overhead conductors would be replaced by AB Cable which will not only prevent tampering with but will also help in maintaining the quality of power. State power minister Sovandeb Chatterjee had said that MLAs of places with high aggregate technical and commercial losses have been alerted. “There are plans of making it underground. At the same time these AB Cables will help prevent many accidents which are caused by bare overhead conductors,” Chatterjee said. It was found that the state intends to spend about Rs 8000 crore in installing AB Cable.
On the other hand officials of privately-owned Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) said that they had unsuccessfully tried the technology in 2005. “It is seemingly impregnable and worked for about two years after we installed those but pilferers found a way out to tamper with these. Either the insulator on the wire was slashed at or burnt to create an opening for hooking,” a senior CESC official said.
He also said that at present CESC had resorted to a first-in-India technology to deal with power theft. “We are now using coaxial cable where the wires, instead of running side by side, run in a concentric circle which, if attempted to puncture for hooking will not be successful,” he said and added that the joints of the cable would have junction boxes which would be sealed with expandable PU sealant making it foolproof. “A pilot project at Tiljala area in south Kolkata had been successfully implemented. We are now in the process of installing it in along Avinash Chowdhury Lane also in south Kolkata and next would be at Narkeldanga area in north Kolkata. These are areas which are most vulnerable in terms of power theft,” the official said.
Officials of Loss Control Cell (LCC) of CESC said that they had brought down power theft from 70 percent to 15 percent in about two years by taking various preventive steps along with awareness programmes and making electric meters easily available.
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