‘AEML to add 2,000 Mw to stop outages in Mumbai’
With Mumbai’s demand for electricity expected to touch 5,000 Mw in the near future and transmission capacity at only 2,700 Mw, Adani Electricity Mumbai (AEML) is working on a plan to bring additional power from the national grid to the city with the help of other stakeholders. After the takeover of the company, AEML has invested ~1,500 crore to upgrade its systems to bring it on a par with global peers, says KANDARP PATEL, chief executive officer and managing director, AEML, in an interview with
Dev Chatterjee and Aditi Divekar. Edited excerpts:
The demand for electricity is rising very fast in Mumbai but the present capacity of transmission lines will not be able to meet the demand. What is AEML’S plan to make sure that Mumbai gets high-quality, uninterrupted electricity and there is no repeat of the blackout of October last year? Mumbai has transmission lines of only around 2,700 Mw and there are limits on increasing embedded generation due to environmental concerns. The only option to avoid incidents as in October last year is to bring additional power.
This will also help to reduce power purchase costs. We are working with the state government and transmission companies to make sure that the city never experiences blackouts. In this regard, we have applied for licenses with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for starting work on two major projects to bring an additional 2,000 Mw electricity to Mumbai.
T&D (transmission and distribution) losses were as high as 8.6 per cent and they have reduced to 7.4 per cent. What are you
planning to bring them down further?
We have made a lot of investment in infrastructure and technology to bring down T&D losses substantially. We are upgrading the grid infrastructure with investment in automation and using technology-enabled service delivery, processes and training modules. At the same time, we are implementing IT/OT technologies like SCADA/DMS, ERP, the Geographical Information System (GIS) and Predictive Analytics.
Distribution assets are mapped on the GIS, allowing daily operations on a real-time basis with minimal supply interruption. With the automation of grid operations, we plan to increase distribution automation levels from 40 per cent to 100 per cent in the next five years.
Besides, we are also deploying advanced
The Maharashtra government has come up with a renewable energy policy and AEML is looking to participate. What is your plan on that front?
Our group is committed to lowering the carbon footprint. As part of that, we thought it would be good to increase our renewable energy supply at AEML. Currently, we are at just 3-4 per cent in renewable supply and we want to increase it to 30-35 per cent by 2030. We have tied up 700 Mw of renewable energy and in accordance with the Central government’s policy, we invited competitive bidding for supplying renewable power and, through that, have secured 700 Mw. We will secure renewable power through bidding to go beyond 30-35 per cent.
“With the automation of grid operations, we plan to increase distribution automation levels from 40 per cent to 100 per cent in the next five years. Besides, we are also deploying advanced sensors and adopting artificial intelligence and machine learning”
What are the initiatives on smart meters? How will they help customers?
We will launch more than 700,000 smart meters, the country’s largest, from April. They will help Mumbai consumers monitor their consumption and optimize it. It will also help contactless meter reading and billing. Our digital initiatives are driven by our core belief in the “Power of Service”. Take, for example, earlier the customer had to reach out to us to avail of any service. But now AEML has increased customer touchpoints with the use of cutting-edge technology and digital services, thus empowering its customers.
AEML has installed over 90 self-help kiosks, which help customer get services. By March next year, we will install over 200 such kiosks in Mumbai, assuring customers that they do not have to travel more than 2 km to get their service requirements from us.
As another first, the company is launching a video contact centre in April for consumers to get services at home by connecting with AEML virtually through appointment.