Despite the fatal Shahpura accident, electricity transformers continue to infest threat to public safety, mostly due to un-certified equipments. Those using such transformers are government electricity distribution companies as well.
Despite the fatal Shahpura accident, electricity transformers continue to infest threat to public safety, mostly due to un-certified equipments. Those using such transformers are government electricity distribution companies as well.
Notably, the government had earlier this year made it mandatory for distribution transformers to be ISI certified, however, no such compulsion rests on current transformers.
Experts consider these uncertified transformers as threat to public safety. “Current transformers should be ISI marked. A sub standard current transformer can blast easily if the voltage goes higher than what can be handled. Anyone standing nearby will be brutally burnt due to the blast. Moreover, the sub standard product can also burn the meter if it is overloaded,” said Harish Jain, owner, Roshan Marketing, distributor of transformers from last 34 years.
However, Bureau of Indian Standards believes that LT Current Transformers s are not hazardous enough to be made mandatory for ISI marking.
“Current transformers are not very hazardous as compared to the distribution transformers. The actual load of electricity supply is on distribution transformers. I have not come across any CT blast. There is an ISI mark for the same but is not compulsory,” said RB Srivastava, deputy director, Jaipur BIS.
It is to be noted that Rajasthan State Electricity Board had issued a notification in 1997, which has not been updated since then, which “advised”acceptance of ISI marked CTs only for private consumption. “Nobody even remembers this notification and it is completely violated when CTs are purchased from the market,” Jain explained.
Furthermore, even the latest tender released by Discom does not mention anything about certification of the product for government use.
“If there is a standard created by BIS for any product, that is automatically made mandatory for application on all tenders,” said Naveen Arora, technical director, Jaipur Discom.
The certification
BIS certification was mandated for distribution transformers in January 2017. Transformers set up by Discom across the state were mostly set up before the date, hence are un-certified and are of sub standard quality. Rajasthan Discoms have no plans of replacing the transformers even after experiencing several blasts and loss of life in past few months.
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