Govt schemes to encourage demand for flame retardant HT&LT wires

Industry experts here discuss how government schemes and recent demands have changed the core of HT&LT segment.

Low tension cables have a lower rating where as high tension cables have a higher rating [3.3kV]. Both cables are used in industrial setup and applications, but LT cables are generally used in applications revolving around the 1.1kV range and HT cables are used mainly in power transmission and its distribution. 

Government schemes that support HT&LT

Government of India had launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) in December 2014 for the rural areas with the objectives of electrification of all un-electrified villages as per Census 2011; Strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including construction of HT and LT lines, metering at distribution transformers, feeders and consumers; and feeder segregation.

Electricity is a concurrent subject. Supply of electricity is in the jurisdiction of State. However, in order to enable continuous electricity supply, Government of India has taken up a joint initiative with all States/UTs for providing 24×7 power supply to all and adequate supply of power to agricultural consumers as per State policy.

Government of India supplements the efforts of the States through its various schemes including Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana-Saubhagya and Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) to help them to achieve the objective of providing uninterrupted power supply to every households.

Providing electricity connection to households is one of the benchmark/aspirational targets which is monitored under Aspirational District Programme and as per information available on NITI Aayog dashboard, the percentage of households with electricity connection in Wayanad district is 100 percent.

HT&LT transmission line demands

Very large lengths of LT lines have come up as compared to HT lines resulting in high LT/ HT ratios. Naman Singhal, Director, Prime Cables says, “The ratio of LT to HT lines in our country has crossed 3:1. This results in high losses and low voltages at the consumer end. Increasing HT lines can help in reducing both line losses and voltage drops. Efforts should be made to achieve a ratio of 1:1.2, which would be very beneficial for improving efficiency of power distribution in our country.”

The losses for a given quantum of power supplied by a line are inversely proportional to the square of its operating voltage. Apart from installation, there has to be an understanding for the essentialities of having fire resistance cables, especially when there is a persistent misperception among the people between fire resistant cables and the flame retarded cables, as both are termed as FR. People usually fail to realise the difference among the two, so the builders and the designers of a smart city or any other builder must be conscious of the meaning and should rather opt for fire resistant cables and not the flame retarded cables. So, using fire resistant cables is imperative. If we use the proper material and cables for fire resistance, we would be able to avoid many fire accidents.

Demand for transmission lines

The presented distribution system involves three-phase 11KV feeders from 33/11 KV substation up to distribution transformers of rating 11KV/440V. From these distribution transformers, 3-phase 4 wire lines come out. Singhal adds, “Distribution system with low voltage consists of four core cables and long low voltage lines and various loads fed from a bulk power transformer resulting in increase in system losses affecting voltage profile.”

Low voltage distribution is done either by 3-phase 4-wire, 3- phase 5-wire, single phase 3-wire and single phase 2-wire low tension lines. This distribution system involves nearly 2:1 ratio of low and high voltage line lengths. This low ratio of HT to LT causes losses. So, it is highly important to optimise this ration in order to reduce such distribution losses. Naman Singhal, Director, Prime Cables says, “We can improve the HT/LT ratio by converting LT distribution network into HT distribution network. Converting LT lines to higher voltage consist high initial cost but after some specified time period this system is beneficial.”

In agricultural sector, if we go for HVDS system, it connects cluster of 2 to 3 AGR customers employed as small distribution transformer of capacity 6.6 KVA, 15KVA and 25 KVA through almost negligible LT distribution lines.

Also, it reaffirms the company’s continuous efforts and commitment towards enhancing the Environmental performance there by a sustainable step towards doing social responsibility. As the festive cheer slowly proceeds towards the end of the year, the pandemic-stricken times have shown a significant increase in television viewership. With easy access and content availability across various online platforms, the viewership has increased to 15.6 billion in India. We can reduce the losses by installation of single phase transformers to feed residential and commercial customers in rural areas and providing of small distribution transformers with a distribution box attached with its body, having provision for installation of meters.

Market challenges

Earlier in India, people used to buy LT cables, but now that trend has gone on to 220 kV as that is becoming very normal now. Even people and utilities are buying 400 kV cable. Currently in India, there are hardly few players which are manufacturing 220 kV cables; mainly the utilities are buying this type of cable. So they are buying and even importing this cable. Singhal says, “In India, this market has to be still developed because cable is a tailor-made item and if all the utilities and the state utilities had their own specification, it gets standardised somewhere like HT & LT cable since it becomes a most standardised item everywhere.” So it’s a similar thing that is happening in this segment and also for EHV cable, technology will not have too many new developments and the import will be reduced. Import of cables will also be reduced. ___________________________________________________________________

Increasing HT lines can help in reducing both line losses and voltage drops

Naman Singhal, Director, Prime Cables