Technical Loss Reduction through Active Repair of Distribution Transformers for Mahadiscom
- Current Scenario of Distribution Transformer and its losses in India
In India, power distribution companies (DISCOMs) are having high 24.96% Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses, with high 22% T&D losses [1]. Of these, the Technical losses are estimated to be around 9-12%. These losses are fairly high as compared to other countries and continue pressing financial sustenance of the DISCOMs. Distribution Transformer (DT) forms one of the important and high capex asset for DISCOMs. It is estimated that the average overall technical losses in DTs with these DISCOMs could be as high as 3%, compared to 0.5% ideal value. This makes DT one of the key intervention areas for the DISCOMs to bring down their overall network Technical losses.
There are many reform programs initiated by the Government of India to modernize and improve the distribution network, utility processes and overall financial sustenance of DISCOMs. These programs have yielded some positive results in distribution loss reduction but at lower speed.
Challenges of measuring technical losses:
One major challenge with DTs is inherent difficulty in measurement of the Technical losses within while the DT is functional on the network. Usually DTs have secondary side meters for energy auditing. For measurement of technical losses, it will require to have metering also on the primary high side of the DT, which in turn will require mounting new CTs and PTs with right accuracy levels in sync with meters deployed, and that will be sizeable investment at each DT level. Alternatively, there can be a custom-made setup mounted on a mobile van, and this can be used to measure Technical losses in a DT. This will however require taking shutdown time at each DT level, and pose its own practical challenges.