Fewer transformers have burnt this winter in the jurisdiction of Patna Electric Supply Undertaking (Pesu), mirroring improved power supply scenario in the city.

Sources said the efforts of South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) to carry out reform and maintenance of the power distribution network in the past 14 months (since its inception in November 2012) have led to the reduction in the number of burnt-transformer cases in urban Patna.

SBPDCL provides service to 19 lakh consumers in 17 districts, including Patna. The city has around four lakh power consumers.

SBPDCL’s counterpart — North Bihar Power Distribution Company Ltd (NBPDCL) — caters to the need of 24 lakh consumers in 21 districts.

Pesu has reported eight cases of distribution transformer burning in December 2013 against 25 in December 2012, said Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, the managing director of the distribution companies.

The number of burnt-transformer cases has further reduced in the first half of January 2014, Agarwal said. Pesu has received three complaints of burnt-transformer in the first 15 days of the month against 68 cases reported in January 2013.

“Since inception in November 2012, the distribution companies have taken a slew of measures to reduce the cases of transformer-burning across the state, especially in Patna. This could be made possible because of the constant review of the maintenance work by the CMD,” Agarwal said.

The managing director appreciated the hard work of the employees and engineers of the power companies in achieving the target. He announced that the engineers and employees would be rewarded if their division does not receive a single case of transformer burning in three consecutive months.

Pesu, which caters to the need of power supply in urban Patna, has around 4,000 transformers of different capacities, including 315KVA, 200KVA and 100KVA in its 10 supply divisions.

Agarwal said SBPDCL took several initiatives to carry out proper maintenance and strengthening of the distribution transformers. Some of the initiatives include installation of additional transformers in the areas under Pesu, Own Your Transformer Scheme 2013 that enables consumers to own separate transformers and putting equal of load in all the three phases.

“The company also installed meters and AB switches (AB switch disconnects power supply in a particular transformer from the rest of the power supply system). A fund of Rs 1.45 lakh was allocated by the headquarters to every sub-division for the maintenance of transformers,” Agarwal said.