The West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission has asked CESC Ltd to map the existing generator sets in its command area in the city and its surroundings for possible mitigation of sudden shortfall in available power in the grid through back-up supply.

R N Sen, Chairman of WBERC, said at an event organised by Independent Power Producers Association of India that CESC has been asked to map independent generator sets (and their capacities) in the city.

The regulator has taken such a step looking into the future projections. Sen said in future when substantial solar power, prone to sudden supply fluctuation, is planned to be injected into the system there might be occasions requiring immediate back-up supply.

Making it clear that it was an exploratory idea, he explained that in such a situation, switching on independent generation through the string of (diesel) sets could save potential problem in power supply.

The WBERC Chairman said the commission was also tapping the potential of using fibre optic cable by the private utility. This could provide enough bandwidth for CESC to conduct electronic payment mechanism as well as rent out the infrastructure to telecom or cable operators.

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