Bac Ninh Power Company – efforts to reduce power loss

02/11/2011

Thus, the rate of power loss has reduced over the years. In 1997, power loss of medium voltage grid of the whole company was 10.35%, was 4.24% in 2010 and decreased to 3.66% in the first 6 months of 2011. Calculating by the current electric prices, with 1% of power loss reduced, Bac Ninh Power Company saves VND 10.5 billion for the State.

During the process of power manufacturing and trading, the transmission of power from factories to consumers always suffers a certain amount of power loss. Losses caused by conductors, equipment ... are called technical losses, and losses due to people’s deliberate distortion of electricity metering system, power theft, causing loss of power output ... are non-technical losses (also known as commercial losses).

In fact, in recent years, Bac Ninh Power Company has applied several measures to reduce power losses, including the assignation of loss targets and integration of these indicators into wage regulations of units. Thus, the rate of power loss has reduced over the years. In 1997, power loss of medium voltage grid of the whole company was 10.35%, was 4.24% in 2010 and decreased to 3.66% in the first 6 months of 2011. Calculating by the current electric prices, with 1% of power loss reduced, Bac Ninh Power Company saves VND 10.5 billion for the State.

To achieve that success, officials and employees of Bac Ninh Power Company has had to constantly strive and considered power loss reduction as a critical mission. Especially in rural areas, when the broken-down rural low voltage grid was delivered, power loss of some transformer stations was up to 35%, thus pushing up electricity prices, causing detriment to households. Upon receipt of the grid, the company has gradually improved it, replaced overloaded and unsafe lines, so the rate of power loss of substations has been reduced to 10% - 15%. Ms. Nguyen Thi Luc (Tam Giang, Yen Phong) said: "Since the power sector managed the supply of sell electricity to rural households, we have been very excited as the power quality has been better and power price of the state has become more reasonable”. To reduce power losses from under-load, overloaded and no-load transformers, technical management departments have reviewed, monitored and planned to permute some no- load transformers and overloaded transformers, increasing the capacity of hundreds of other overloaded transformers to meet the needs of the people.

One of the measures to reduce losses applied by power grid management units is continuously monitoring operation parameters of transformers for timely phase balancing, load leveling; resolving contacts of the 0.4 kV grid and installing hundreds of medium and low voltage capacitors to improve capacity and ensure power quality at consumers’ houses. They have also regularly performed testing to detect abnormal meters for timely replacement. The periodic replacement of meters has also complied with the Ordinance on Measurement of the State. Therefore, in 2009, the grid in the city area had a loss of 5.78%; in 2010, that figure was only 5.72%, and in the first 6 months of this year, it has been reduced to 5.7%.

Despite the efforts of managing units to reduce power losses, the deliberate distortion of power metering system and power theft are becoming more and more complicated and increasingly sophisticated. In 2010, Bac Ninh Power Company inspected 21,257 consumers, discovered 109 violations, collected 104,082 kWh, equivalent to more than VND 270 million. From the beginning of 2011 to date, the company has examined 11,964 consumers, detected 28 violations, collected 198,120 kWh, equivalent to VND 500 million, including fines of more than VND 30 million for violations of power purchase contracts. According to Mr. Le Van Minh, Deputy Head of Sales Department of the Company directly in charge of electricity testing unit, it is necessary to extensively propagate contents of the Electricity Act to the people. In particular, local governments need to cooperate closely with the electricity industry to prevent and strictly handle violations in the use of electricity.

Power loss reduction is always a front full of difficulties. The close cooperation between branches and power users to ensure fairness and civilization in electricity trading is essential.

By Minh Duc

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