Focus on reducing energy loss

(Baonghean) - The rural power grid after handover has only been renovated by 1/3 of its volume. In many places, the power supply radius is too wide, leading to poor power quality and high power loss rate.

In 2015, Nghe An Electricity's commercial electricity output reached more than 1,918 million kWh, achieving 100.96% of the plan assigned by the Northern Power Corporation, up 12.8% over the same period. The electricity loss rate reached 9.88%, lower than the same period in 2014. One of the branches that performed well in reducing electricity loss was Vinh City Electricity. Mr. Pham Van Nga - Director of Vinh City Electricity said: In 2015, the electricity loss rate in the city was 3.89%, down 1.02% compared to 2014 (of which, medium voltage loss was 2.3%, low voltage loss was 3.42%). To reduce electricity loss, Vinh City Electricity... Vinh has upgraded and renovated the medium voltage line, added and increased the capacity of the transformer station to level the ground, reduce the power supply radius, increase the cross-section of the conductor, install low-voltage capacitor banks, conduct a general check on electricity usage by customers, install 3-price electronic meters for the right customers to sell electricity by time and sell reactive power.

High loss rate

However, in many localities, especially in large rural areas, the rate of power loss is still high. For example, in Yen Thanh - the locality with the third largest number of customers in the province, the branch is currently managing over 81,000 customers, the electricity consumption in 2015 reached over 90 million kWh, and the rate of power loss here is among the highest in the province. Mr. Ho Sy Vinh - Director of Yen Thanh Electricity said that currently 39 communes and towns have handed over the power grid to the Electricity industry for management. After receiving, with a total low-voltage grid of up to 1,200km, Yen Thanh still has many lines that have not been upgraded, so the power loss in the area is still high, up to 16%. The goal for 2016 is to reduce the loss to 11%, but with the current infrastructure situation and limited funding sources of the industry, it is very difficult to synchronously upgrade the power grid.

Dien Chau Power Engineering staff inspect power lines in the district

In Dien Chau, the district's electricity is currently managing 600 km of low-voltage lines with over 90,000 customers. After receiving the power grid, the communes' power grids were very old and dilapidated, especially the 18 communes handed over in 2014 - 2015, which have not been upgraded or repaired for many years. Currently, 39/39 communes and towns have been handed over, only a few residential areas have not been handed over due to procedural problems. In 2015, from a budget of 29 billion VND from Nghe An Electricity, 7 transformer stations and medium-voltage lines were invested; 101 km of low-voltage lines were invested. However, like Yen Thanh, according to the assessment, except for a few places that have been invested, the remaining power grid infrastructure is generally limited, does not ensure quality, and the rate of power loss is 13 - 14%. Mr. Le Hong Linh - Director of Dien Chau Electricity said that in 2016, Nghe An Electricity assigned the target of reducing power loss to 9.57% but it will be very difficult to achieve this target. The reason is that the 18 communes received in 2015 have difficulty upgrading and renovating the power grid infrastructure.

Looking for solutions

In the past, after receiving, Nghe An Electricity Company paid great attention and utilized all capital sources to replace meters that did not ensure measurement quality and to make minimal repairs. However, due to the large volume of received items, only 1/3 of the volume that needed to be renovated was met. For example, from the project to improve energy efficiency in rural areas, Nghe An province has renovated 23% of the low-voltage grid with a scale of over 274 communes, initially improving the safety of this system in terms of reducing losses and improving electricity quality. Or from the project to replace wires and install transformer stations to reduce losses in 2015, 747,733 km of rural low-voltage lines with small cross-sections and unqualified conductors were renovated to operate wires with larger cross-sections.

According to Nghe An Electricity, there are still 11,600 km of low voltage grid that need to be renovated, it is estimated that 2,000 billion VND will be needed to invest in renovation, replacing the entire CVX wire volume and interspersing about 600 transformer stations (estimated at 500 billion VND) to improve power quality and reduce power loss. In 2016, the goal is to reduce the power loss rate to below 8.1%. Nghe An Electricity leaders said: To achieve the set plan, we calculate the technical loss of the medium and low voltage grid as a basis for units to assign to production and electricity service teams, helping units identify and zone losses to have effective implementation solutions, thereby identifying losses and developing implementation plans. Strengthening monitoring of voltage quality at 220kV, 110kV stations and intermediate stations to ensure stable voltage at the permitted level. In addition, calculate and re-check the locations of capacitor banks when the grid structure changes. Gradually automate the switching on and off of the capacitor bank system, and coordinate with customers using large capacity to invest in installing capacitor banks...

Viet Phuong