Socio-Technical Initiatives For Ug Cable Asset Management Kane Nilesh, Kumar Rajeev, Pal Sandip, Kumar Anuj TATA Power Delhi Distribution Limited Online published on 6 January, 2017. Abstract Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited is a joint-venture of Tata Power Company & Govt. of NCT of Delhi. It is one of the Distribution Companies which operates in an area of 510 sq km in North & North-West part of Delhi serving around 1.6 million consumers. TPDDL caters peak demand of around 1750 MW with its vast UG cable network to the tune of 10, 000 Circuit km installed capacity. The Power distribution utilities all across glove are striving for reliable and un-interrupted power to ensure customer satisfaction. UG cables have played a major role by undergrounding the overhead distribution network. It provides higher safety, reliability and ultimate system economy by reducing operation and maintenance cost. TPDDL with predominant urban geography has vast UG cable network which delivers reliable and quality supply to its valuable customers. Frequent external damage of this critical power delivery asset results in customer dissatisfaction viz. loss of revenue due to unserved energy and expenditure incurred on repair and maintenance to the tune of approx. 2 Crore in FY 2014–15. Based on the cable fault data, it has been observed that there was a rising and alarming trend in failure of UG cables in recent years. Reason of rising trend in UG cable is mainly due to External damages as multiple utilities are working in Delhi to improve the infrastructure facility all across Delhi. Our analysis reveals that the key reasons for External damage are no separate trench for different utilities, lack of proper communication between different utilities, assignment of work to contractors to subcontractors, unskilled digging manpower, inconsistency in cable depth profile etc. There is no clear cut technical solution available to cope-up the challenges associated due to cable damaged by external agencies. We, TPDDL had taken Socio-Technical initiatives where we involved public to reduce the external damages. In initial stage all the damage prone location were identified and Physical route markers were installed at all the locations. Physical route markers were installed at all the fault prone/critical locations, but there was not significant reduction in the cable damage cases. To find out the root cause of the problem, a field survey has been conducted on JCB/HDD machines operators/Labor people. After analysis of collected data, very surprising result were observed. The phone number mentioned on the route markers was not toll free, most of the people either do not have balance in phone or they are not willing to spend a single penny to inform the TPDDL officials regarding the digging because most of the time, labor persons present at site during excavation. Thereafter, A Toll free number was introduced to eliminate the above problem. The same toll free number is mentioned on the route markers. Awareness sessions for Operators of JCB/HDD also conducted. Stickers of Toll free number also pasted on JCB/HDD machines to eliminating the risk of forgetting the number by JCB/HDD machine operators. This initiative became a mile stone for our efforts. Frequent calling started on the Toll Free no from General Public, Operators of JCB/HDD, Civic agencies and significant no of cables has been saved successfully with the joint effort of FLC/Zone/OMS. Approx. 35% reduction was observed in external damage cases in FY 2015–16 as compared to FY 2014–15. Top Keywords HDD (Horizontal Directional Drilling), OMS (Outage Management System), FLC (Fault Location Cell), NCT (National Capital Territory), TPDDL (Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited), ED (External Damage), UG (Underground). Top |