TNEB

Tamil Nadu Electricity Board

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Company type	Public Sector Undertaking
Industry	Electricity generation, transmission, distribution, retailing
Founded	July 01, 1957
Headquarters	Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Area served	Tamil Nadu, India
Products	Electricity
Website	[1]

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board TNEB is a statutory body formed on 01.07.1957 under the Electricity Supply Act, 1948 as a successor to the erstwhile,Electricity Department of the Government of Madras. India, that generates, distributes and regulates the electricity supply in the state. Established in 1957, the agency comes under the authority of the Department of Power.

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is the State Transmission Utility and a Licensee as notified by the Government of Tamil Nadu under provision of clause (a) of Section 172 of the Electricity Act, 2003 for the period upto 15-09-2010.

History

Electricity generation in Tamil Nadu until about 1908 was confined to a few tiny plants in Tea Estates run on water power and to a small hydro electric station at Kattery near Coonoor. The Government Electricity department was created in 1927.

The Pykara Hydro electric Power Station was constructed by Sir John G. Henry Howard , a British Engineer and the first Chief Electrical Engineer of the then Composite Madras State Electricity Department and commissioned in 1933 with an original installed capacity of 70 MW.

The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board was constituted with effect from 1st July 1957 under the Electricity Supply Act 1948 and came to be known as “The Madras State Electricity Board” with Padmashri V.P. Appadurai appointed as Chief Engineer (Electricity). The first thermal power plant was commissioned during 1971 at Ennore, Chennai with its first unit of 60 MW capacity.

Naphtha based gas station of 10 MW capacity was commissioned at Narimanam during 1991-92.TNEB simultaneously ventured into wind generation and 120 units with a total capacity of 19.355 MW was commissioned in the period 1986-93. In 1992, the power sector was thrown open for private participation and the first independent power project was established by GMR Vasavi at Basin Bridge,Chennai.

Today TNEB has grown into a giant organization having a installed capacity of 10,122 MW and serving a consumer base of about 2 crore consumers

Mission of the Government

The Government of India has planned to give “Power for all by 2012”. To achieve this, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board is making progress in Generation, Transmission and Distribution sector. TNEB has completed the electrification of all villages and towns in the state and is also progressing towards electrification of all households.

Generation

To satisfy the energy needs of the state, TamilNadu Electricity Board has a total installed capacity of 10,214 MW which includes State, Central share and Independent power producers. Other than this, the state has installations in renewable energy sources like windmill up to 4300 MW. Due to the astronomical increase in energy demand in the last few years, the state has a deficit of power which is estimated to be around 11.9% as on Feb 2009.To meet the ever-increasing energy demand in the coming years, TNEB has proposed new generation projects for the next 5 years.

Transmission

TNEB has a total of 1202 substations with HT and EHT lines to a length of 1,63,883 Kms. The voltage levels in use in TNEB are 400KV ,230 KV,110 KV, 66 KV,33 KV, 22 KV and 11 KV. In order to evacuate bulk power from one region to another region, there is a more scope for enhancing transmission capability to 765 KV level and setting up of 800 KV High Voltage DC system. The Government of India has approved nondiscriminatory open access for the transmission system .The Government of Tamil Nadu has also permitted third party sale of power produced by IPPs, CPPs & other private power producers through short term Intra-State open access to HT consumers within Tamil Nadu.

Distribution

TNEB has a consumer base of about 200 lakh consumers. 100% rural electrification has been achieved. Per Capita consumption of Tamilnadu is 1000 units.To achieve the goal of electrification of all households, the Government has launched the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) scheme. Where grid connectivity is not feasible or not cost effective, Decentralised Distributed Generation is permitted.

To achieve reliable and quality power supply and minimise the loss of energy, MOP/GOI has launched the Restructured APDRP scheme under 11th five year plan.

Restructuring of TNEB

Government of Tamil Nadu has accorded an in principle approval for the re-organisation of TNEB by the establishment of a holding company, by the name TNEB Ltd and two subsidiary companies, namely Tamil Nadu Transmission Corporation Ltd (TANTRANSCO) and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (TANGEDCO) with the stipulation that the above mentioned companies shall be fully owned by Government . The Govt. has also constituted a Steering Committee to finalise the transfer scheme for the re-organisation of Board under section 131 of the Electricity Act, 2003.

TNEB First

• First cascading hydro-electric scheme – Kundah in the Nilgiris

This cascading hydro electric scheme consists of 5 power houses . It was developed with Canadian aid and was put into operation stage by stage from 1957 to 1964.

• First Barrage type Power House

Four Barrage type Power Houses each 2 x 15 MW were developed and commissioned during the year 1987-1989 across Cauvery river between Mettur and Bhavani. The Power Houses are located in the river bed itself.

• Kadamparai Pumped Storage Hydro Electric station ( 4 x100 MW)

The Kadamparai Pumped Storage Hydro Electric station (4 x100 MW) in Coimbatore District was commissioned in the year 1986 and is the first of its kind in the country to operate both in operation and pumping mode since 1987. In this Power House the off peak energy is utilized to pump water to the upper reservoir and during peak hours the Power House is put in generation mode.

• First Gas Insulated Substation

In 1998 the first 230 KV Gas Insulated switchgear substation in the country was commissioned at Mylapore, Chennai. This was supplied and erected by M/s MerlinGerin,France Commissioning of 230 KV Transmission line In 1960 TNEB commissioned 173 km long Kundah – salem 230 KV transmission which was the first 230 KV network in the country

• SCADA project

SCADA (Supervisor Control and Data Acquisition System) of Chennai Distribution Control Centre is the first in the country and it remotely controls 95 distribution substations in Chennai City.

• Prestressed Concrete poles

The technology of prestressed concrete was developed in the 1960s. TNEB was a pioneer in setting up a PSC pole yard at Samayanallur near Madurai in 1970.

• Power line Carrier Communication (PLCC) in Grid Operation

TNEB is the pioneer in India in introducing PLCC system for its own communication requirements.PLCC system utilizes 66/110/230/400 KV transmission lines as the medium for communication.PLCC provides for limited channels for speech communication, low speed data communication (200 bps) and protection tripping.In 1960 PLCC sets and protection couplers of Brown Boveri Corporation,Switzerland make were put into service in 66 stations.

• First state to achieve 100 % Village Electrification

Tamil Nadu is the first state in the country to achieve 100 % electrification of all villages as early as 1992.

Windpower

wind farm in Muppandal, Tamil Nadu.

Main article: Wind power in India

India has the world's fifth largest wind power industry, with an installed wind power capacity of 9,587 MW.

Others

The Power Engineers Hand Book published by TNEB Engineers Association is well recognized among the practicing Electrical Engineers of the country. The Hand Book has its origin in the year 1947. The sixth enlarged version was released in 2002.

External links

• Official website