West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company

West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (WBSETCL) was set up in 2007 following the unbundling of the state electricity board of West Bengal. With a share of 4 percent each in the total intra-state transformer capacity, WBSETCL is the eleventh largest of the 23 state transmission utilities in the country. It is responsible for power transmission across the state at the 400KV, 220KV, 132KV and 66KV Voltage levels. The company also manages the state load dispatch center, which monitors and controls the grid operations.

Network Growth

Company's transformation capacity stood at about 16,350 MVA as of march 2010. Capacity at the 220KV and 132KV levels constituted a roughly similar share of 40 percent of the total. WBSETCL recorded the hight compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% in transformer capacity during 2006-07 to 2009-10 among all state utilities. At the end of 2009-10, its transmission line length stood at over 11,450 ckt. km, growing at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2005-06. About 60% of its line network is at the 132KV level. Across all voltage levels, its 400KV network(constituting 14% of its network) has grown the fastest in the past five years, with a CAGR of about 20 percent.

IT initiatives

The Company is planning to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution across all functional processes. The development of a geo-referenced power map using geographic information system (GIS) technology is another major planned initiative for mapping and indexing the company's electrical network assets. For better monitoring and control of its different substations, data acquisition system are being installed at five substations. old and outdated VHF sets are to be replaced at different extra HT and HT substations. Installation of optic fibre network to improve data acquisition from the substation is yet another planned initiative. An emergency restoration system for substations as well as transmission lines is planned to be procured to ensure speedy restoration in case of eventualities. such systems are used extensively by utilities abroad to bring down restoration time from about a year to just one or two weeks.

Future Plans

WBSETCL plans to add over 2,000MVA to its transformer capacity and 900 ckt. km to its transmission line network in the current fiscal(2010–11). A capex of over Rs 8 billion has been outlined in 2010-11 on various capacity augmentation projects. About 10 new substations would be commissioned by WBSETCL in the current fiscal(2010–11), which would add 2,180 MVA to its existing transformer capacity. These include a 400KV substation at Kharagpur, two 220KV substations at Singur and Dalkhola, and five 132KV substations at Chalsa, Kurseong, Khatra, Mohispota and Salt lake(this will be GIS substation). Besides the commissioning of new sub-stations, capacity augmentation would be undertaken at 12 existing substations, of which five are at the 220 KV level. Over 912ckt. km of transmission line would also be added in the current fiscal through 19 ongoing transmission line projects. The estimated cost of these transmission line is Rs. 4.63 billion. In order to reduce transmission losses further, the installation of 33KV capacitors at EHV substations and installation of EHV substations near the load centers are some of the important strategies being deployed by WBSETCL.

Growth Statistics

	2008-09	2009-10	Growth (%)
Line length (ckt. km)	11,089.50	11,456.90	3.31
Substations (no.)	93	102	9.68
Transformation capacity (MVA)	13,951.20	16,347.70	17.18
Transmission Losses (%)	3.90	2.74	-