Union territory of Chandigarh is a small city with 114 Sq. Km. Land area; came into existence with effect from 01 Nov 1966 after the re-organization of Punjab. Chandigarh does not have any provision of power generation of its own and is totally dependent on the neighboring states for its power supply. Chandigarh Administration has taken over the local distribution of electricity from PSEB on 2nd May, 1967. Almost 1480 employees are working daily under the guidance of four Executive Engineers and a Superintending Engineer.
As per the latest authenticated stats, the electricity department of Chandigarh has about 282 MW electricity requirement; which is being met from different Central/State Generating stations. Chandigarh is receiving 67% of its power through Mohali (PSEB), about 10% through Dhulkote (BBMB) and remaining 23% through Nalagarh. The city has a transmission network which comprises of one 220 KV Sub Station (Kishangarh Manimajra), thirteen (13) 66 KV Sub Stations, five (5) 33 KV and 1746 11 KV Sub Stations. At present (31/03/2014), the city has total 2,00,000 Consumers including 1,72,653 domestic consumers, 21,428 commercial consumers and about 2300 industrial consumers. The average per capita consumption of electricity in Chandigarh is 1168 units per annum; leading to an average power requirement of 32.49 lac units per day. The city beautiful has an allocation of 166-236 MW of power from different Central/State Generating Stations during different hours of the day. Besides this, Chandigarh Administration is maintaining 19437 numbers overhead tube type of street light points within sectors (i.e. V-6) roads.
Source: http://chandigarh.gov.in/engg_web/pages/about_us.html
Supdt. Er. Electy.OP Circle,U.T.Chandigarh
The increase in population along with the ever-increasing per capita consumption of electricity is making it difficult for the city to meet the demand. This in turn leads to power cuts and discontinuous supply of power to both residential and non-residential areas including the industrial area; as a consequence of the productivity is being affected. Chandigarh draws power from the central grid and has no power generation of its own. But yet electricity consumption of Chandigarh is increasing by 52 million units every year. Therefore it is imperative that the union territory adapts itself to reduce dependence on the grid electricity and build its own captive generation or switch to renewable power that helps to generate its own power. Aiming to the energy efficient city, Chandigarh is moving strongly to adopt Solar City plan to reduce dependence on Conventional Energy resources.
Ministry of Natural & Renewable Energy (MNRE) Government of India (GOI), New Delhi has selected Chandigarh to develop as Model Solar City through Chandigarh Renewal Energy, Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST). Master Plan for Model solar City was prepared by, “The Energy and Resource Institute” (TERI) and approved by MNRE, GOI in Jan 2012. The Solar City plan is aimed to reduce the dependence on conventional electricity consumption by 10 % in next five years (2017).
This Master Plan for Solar City is a dynamic document meant to change with time, experience, and need. The development of master plan has benefitted from the collaborative participation of CREST, Public Works Department, Municipal Corporation UT, Chandigarh Administration, Municipal Water Supply Department, Forest Department, power utilities, electricity department of Chandigarh Administration; and other agencies with energy-related responsibilities. Development of a solar city requires an integrated urban planning approach, which simultaneously involves reducing reliance on fossil fuels by the application of energy conservation & efficiency measures and by replacing the conventional energy generation with the renewable energy. The key steps of the Model Solar City concept comprised:
- Base line determination,
- Energy planning Energy use projections
- Energy efficiency measures and audit
- Utilization of available renewable energy sources
- Developing an Master Plan
Types of Energy