CESC sees huge surge in electricity consumption

Kolkata: CESC is ready to welcome its 3.27 millionth customer by the end of this year.

The corresponding figure in 2017 was 3.17 million, which means an addition of nearly 98,000 new connections in 2018.

An analysis of this year's CESC connections shows the average time taken to provide new power connection has been reduced substantially and it is now possible to get a new line within 24 hours. Take the case of Mita Mondal of Dum Dum, who was provided a new power connection on December 26. She had applied on December 18, 2018. Inspection by the CESC officials was done within a day and a bill sent to her place on December 20, 2018. She made subsequent payment and received her connection on December 26.

According to Avijit Ghosh, CESC Vice President (Distribution Services), the number of electricity customers in the CESC areas have grown by more than 3 lakhs in the last three years. Currently, the fastest growing areas are Southern Kolkata, Howrah and Serampore. The maximum power demand successfully met by CESC this year was 2,131 MW on June 18, 2018, which is almost the same as last year's maximum demand of 2,159 MW met by the company on 19 June 2017. In the meantime, the company's resolve to reduce the restoration time of off-supply cases has received

excellent response. According to Ghosh, another noticeable achievement is the reduction of off-supply cases, for which the average restoration time has been reduced by 21%. This year, not only were there lesser number of underground faults but average time taken for restoration has also come down by 12 percent.