Electrical Terms

Ambient Temperature: It is the temperature of the air, water, or surrounding earth. Conductor ampacity is corrected for changes in ambient temperature including temperatures below 86°F. The cooling effect can increase the current carrying capacity of the conductor.

Ammeter: An electric meter connected in series to the circuit used to measure current, calibrated in amperes.

Ampacity: The amount of electric current a conductor can carry without exceeding its specified temperature, in amperes

Ampere: The base unit of electric current in the International System of Units that is equal to a constant current which when maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length and negligible circular sections one meter apart in a vacuum produces between the conductors a force equal to 2 × 10−7 Newton per meter of length.

Ampere–hour (Amp-Hours or Ah): A unit quantity of electricity equal to the quantity carried past any point of a circuit in one hour by a steady current of one ampere.

Amplifier: An electrical circuit that produces an output that is a replica of the input. The output may be scaled or have increased drive, or it may provide isolation such that changes in output conditions do not affect the input or other outputs. It may perform transformations like filtering or logarithmic drive.

Arc-over Voltage: The minimum voltage required to cause an arc between electrodes separated by a gas or liquid insulation.

Armored Cable: A cable provided with a wrapping of metal, usually steel wires or tapes, primarily for the purpose of mechanical protection.

Attenuation: (l) The ratio of the input to output power levels in a network (transmission line) when it is excited by a matched source and terminated in a matched load. (2) Power loss in an electrical system.

Bare Conductor: A conductor not covered with insulating material.

Base Load: That portion of electricity demand on a utility system that remains at a nearly steady level.

Base Rates:That portion of a utility's prices covering investment in power plants, substations, wires, poles, equipment and daily operating costs.

Clamp meter: It contains a current transformer and is used to measure current in one phase of a cable. It is also called a tongue tester.

Electric battery: A battery (or voltaic pile) is a device for making electricity by chemical means. In the 1790s, Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) discovered that if pieces of different metals were piled on top of each other separated by cardboard soaked in an acid, an electric current was produced. Despite all the developments since, the principle of the battery remains the same.

Electricity: These days, electricity is thought of in terms of the flow of electrons (tiny charged particles) passing along a wire. It is the manifestation of a form of energy. From the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century, though, electricity was thought of as an imponderable (weightless) material fluid (or fluids) flowing through a wire, the way water flows through a pipe. Michael Faraday was the first to argue that electricity was a force. However, he opposed the atomic conception of matter and was therefore unable to make the leap to an electron theory.

Electric motor: A machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. An early form was invented by Michael Faraday in 1821. He found that a wire carrying an electric current rotated round a magnet. Thus he demonstrated that it was possible to obtain motion from the combination of electricity and magnetism. This encouraged the development of the modern electric motor which uses the interaction of magnetic fields, produced electrically, to cause motion.

Electro-magnetic rotations: The principle behind the electric motor. In 1821, Michael Faraday discovered that a vertically mounted wire carrying an electric current would rotate continuously round a magnet protruding from a bowl of mercury. This phenomenon, which Faraday called electro-magnetic rotations, showed that it was possible to produce continuous motion from the interaction of electricity and magnetism.

Electro-magnetism: Electro-magnetism describes the relationship between electricity and magnetic force. Certain metals can be made magnetic by passing an electric current through a coil wound around a piece of them. A report of the discovery of this effect was published in 1820 by Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851).

Bayonet Coupling: A quick coupling device for plug and receptacle connectors, accomplished by rotation of a cam operating device designed to bring the connector halves together.

Beryllium Copper (Be Cu): A relatively expensive contact material with properties superior to brass and phosphor bronze. It is recommended for contact applications requiring repeated extraction and reinsertion because of its resistance to fatigue at high operating temperatures.
Bonding Jumper: A bare or insulated conductor used to ensure the required electrical conductivity between metal parts required to be electrically connected. Frequently used from a bonding bushing to the service equipment enclosure to provide a path around concentric knockouts in an enclosure wall: also used to bond one raceway to another.

Breakdown Voltage: The voltage at which an insulator or dielectric ruptures, or at which ionization and conduction take place in a gas or vapor.
British Thermal Unit (BtU): Standard unit of heat measurement, equal to raising one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit at sea level pressure.

Cable: Either a stranded conductor with or without insulation and other coverings (single-conductor cable), or a combination of conductors insulated from one another (multiple-conductor cable).

Cable Assembly: A cable with plugs or connectors on each end.

Capacitance: That property of a system of conductors and dielectrics that permits the storage of electricity when potential difference exists between the conductors. Its value is expressed as the ratio of quantity of electricity to a potential difference. A capacitance value is always positive.

Capacity: The load for which an electric generating unit, other electrical equipment or power line is rated.

Certificate of Convenience and Necessity: a term used by public service commissions in granting authority to a company to render utility service, usually specifying the area and other conditions of service.

Closed Entry Contact: A female contact designed to prevent the entry of a pin or probing device having a cross-sectional dimension (diameter) greater than the mating pin.

Coaxial Cable: A high-band width cable consisting of two concentric cylindrical conductors with a common axis that is used for high-speed data communication and video signals.

Cogeneration: Joint production of electricity and useful heat/steam from a common source.

Component Lead: The solid or stranded wire or formed conductor that extends from a component and serves as a readily formable mechanical or electrical connection or both.

Concentricity: In a wire or cable, the measurement of the location of the center of the conductor with respect to the geometric center of the surrounding insulation.

Conductance: The reciprocal of resistance. It is the ratio of current passing through a material to the potential difference at its ends.

Conductivity: The ability of a material to conduct electric current. It is expressed in terms of the current per unit of applied voltage. It is the reciprocal of resistivity.

Conductor: Any material (such as a power line) that allows its electrons to be easily transferred.

Connector: A device providing electrical connection/disconnections. It consists of a mating plug and receptacle. Various types of connectors include DIP, card edge, two-piece, hermaphroditic and wire-wrapping configurations. Multiple contact connectors join two or more conductors with others in one mechanical assembly.

Contact, Female: A contact located in an insert or body in such a manner that the mating contact is inserted into the unit. It is similar in function to a socket contact.

Contact, Male: A contact located in an insert or body in such a manner that the mating portion extends into the female contact. It is similar in function to a pin contact.

Contact Resistance: Maximum permitted electrical resistance of pin and socket contacts when assembled in a connector under typical service use.

Contact Size: Defines the largest size wire that can be used with the specific contact. By specification dimensioning, it also defines the diameter of the engagement end of the pin.

Continuous Load: A load where the maximum current is expected to continue for three hours or more. Rating of the branch circuit protection device shall not be less tan 125% of the continuous load.

Demand Charge: A separate charge based upon the demand for electric service by a commercial or industrial customer, based on the investment in facilities necessary to serve them.

Demand Factor: For an electrical system or feeder circuit, this is a ratio of the amount of connected load (in kva or amperes) that will be operating at the same time to the total amount of connected load on the circuit. An 80% demand factor, for instance, indicates that only 80% of the connected load on a circuit will ever be operating at the same time. Conductor capacity can be based on that amount of load.

Diallyl Phthalate (DAP): A thermosetting plastic that offers outstanding dimensional stability and resistance to most chemicals and chemical compounds. It is used in the production of connector housings.

Dielectric: (l) Any insulating medium that intervenes between two conductors. (2) A material that, having the property required to establish an electric field, is recoverable in whole or in part as electric energy.

Dielectric Constant: That property of a dielectric that determines the electrostatic energy stored per unit volume for a unit potential gradient. Permittivity is the preferred term.

Dielectric Strength: The maximum voltage that a dielectric material can withstand, under specified conditions, without rupturing. It is usually expressed as volts/unit thickness. Also called Disruptive Gradient or Electric Strength.

Dielectric Withstanding Voltage: Maximum potential gradient that a dielectric material can withstand without failure.

Distribution Lines: Power lines, like those in neighborhoods, used to carry moderate voltage electricity which is "stepped down" to household levels by transformers on power poles.

Dustproof: Constructed or protected so that dust will not interfere with its successful operation.

Duty, continuous: A service requirement that demands operation at a substantially constant load for an indefinitely long time.

Duty, intermittent: A service requirement that demands operation for alternate intervals of load and no load, load and rest, or load, no load, and rest.

Duty, periodic: A type of intermittent duty in which the load conditions regularly reoccur.

Duty, short time: A requirement of service that demands operations at a substantially constant load for a short and definitely specified time.

Duty, varying: A requirement of service that demands operation at loads, and for intervals of time, both of which may be subject to wide variation.

Electricity: The flow of electrons through a conductor.

Electrostatic Precipitators: Pollution control devices attached to fossil fuel generating plants which prevent the vast majority of fly ash from being released into the air.

Eminent Domain: The authority to acquire land from a private owner for the benefit of public use.

Feeder: Power lines that travel out from substations to "feed" smaller distribution lines in a certain geographic area are called feeders.

Fly ash: Small particles of airborne ash produced by burning fossil fuels.

Franchise fee: A local tax imposed on utilities for the privilege of providing a service within city limits.

Foot-candle (fc): One foot-candle ≈ 10.764 lux. The foot-candle (or lumen per square foot) is a non-SI unit of illuminance. It is obsolete but it is still in fairly common use in the United States, particularly in construction-related engineering and in building codes. Because lux and foot-candles are different units of the same quantity, it is perfectly valid to convert foot-candles to lux and vice versa.

Fuel adjustment Clause: An annual adjustment in rates based on changes in the price of fuel used to generate electricity.

Galvanometer: A device for showing the presence and measuring the quantity of electricity. When an electrical current is passed through the coil of a galvanometer, a magnetic needle near the coil is deflected. This can be calibrated to provide a measure of the quantity of electricity. The galvanometer was invented following Hans Christian Oersted's discovery of electro-magnetism in 1820, and was named after Alessandro Volta's great electrical rival, Luigi Galvani.

Generator: The electric generator was invented by Michael Faraday in 1831 in the course of his work exploring electro-magnetic induction. It's a device with a magnet, or something performing the function of a magnet, that moves in the vicinity of a coil of wire to generate an electric current in the wire. Virtually all electric power is produced using this principle, no matter whether the prime source of energy is coal, oil, gas, nuclear, hydro, or wind, etc.

Ground: A large conducting body (as the earth) used as a common return for an electric circuit and as an arbitrary zero of potential.

Grounded, effectively: Intentionally connected to earth through a ground connection or connections of sufficiently low impedance and having sufficient current-carrying capacity to prevent the buildup of voltages that may result in undue hazards to connect equipment or to persons.

Grounded Conductor: A system or circuit conductor that is intentionally grounded, usually gray or white in color.

Grounding Conductor: A conductor used to connect metal equipment enclosures and/or the system grounded conductor to a grounding electrode, such as the ground wire run to the water pipe at a service; also may be a bare or insulated conductor used to ground motor frames, panel boxes, and other metal equipment enclosures used throughout electrical systems. In most conduit systems, the conduit is used as the ground conductor.

Grounding Electrode: The conductor used to connect the grounding electrode to the equipment grounding conductor, to the grounded conductor, or to both, of the circuit at the service equipment or at the source of a separately derived system.

Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter: A device intended for the protection of personal that functions to de-energize a circuit or portion thereof within an established period of time when a current to ground exceeds some predetermined value that is less than required to operate the over current protection device of the supply circuit.

Ground Fault Protection of Equipment: A system intended to provide protection of equipment from damaging line to ground fault currents by operating to cause a disconnecting means to open all ungrounded conductors of the faulted circuit. This protection is provided at current levels less than those required to protect conductors from damage through the operations of a supply circuit over current device.

High voltage: Voltage greater than 100,000 volts.

Insulation: A material that offers high electric resistance making it suitable for covering components, terminals and wires to prevent the possible future contact of adjacent conductors resulting in a short circuit.

Interrupter Rating: The highest current at rated voltage that a device is intended to interrupt under standard test conditions.

Jacket: Outermost layer of insulating material of a cable or wire.

Kilowatt (kW):1,000 watts.

Kilowatt-Hour (kWh): A unit of electricity consumption. A kilowatt-hour equals the amount of electricity needed to burn ten, 100-watt light bulbs for one hour.

Kilovolt (kV): 1,000 volts.

Light Emitting Diode (LED): A semiconductor diode that emits light when a voltage is applied to it and that is used especially in electronic devices (as for an indicator light).

Load: The total customer demand for electric service at any given time.

lumen (lm): The lumen (symbolized lm) is the International Unit of luminous flux. A unit of luminous flux is equal to the light emitted in a unit solid angle by a uniform point source of one candela intensity.

lux (lx): Lux is the amount of light you actually see. One lux is equal to one lumen per square meter. It is the amount of light cast on a surface. This is the most practical measurement of light.

Megawatt (MW): One million watts or 1,000 kilowatts.

Mega ohm: A unit of electrical resistance equal to one million ohms.

Mega ohmmeter: An instrument for measuring extremely high resistance.

Megger: A test instrument for measuring the insulation resistance of conductors and other electrical equipment; specifically, a mega ohm (million ohms) meter; this is a registered trade mark of the James Biddle Co.

Natural Monopoly: When the cost of utility service, such as gas, water or electric service, is minimized to customers if a single enterprise is the only seller in the market.

Non inductive Circuit: A circuit in which the magnetic effect of the current flowing has been reduced by one several methods to a minimum or to zero.

Nonlinear Load: A load where the wave shape of the steady state current does not follow the wave shape of the applied voltage.

Off-System Sales: Sales by a utility to a customer (usually another utility) outside of its authorized market.

Ohm: The derived SI unit for electrical resistance or impedance; one ohm equals one volt per ampere.

Ohm's law: Ohm's law relates electro-motive potential difference (V) to current (I) and resistance (R) using the formula V=IR. Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854) published his law in 1827.

Ohmmeter: an instrument for measuring resistance in ohms. Take a look at this diagram to see how an ohmmeter is used to check a small control transformer. The ohmmeter's pointer deflection is controlled by the amount of battery current passing through the moving coil. Before measuring the resistance of an unknown resistor or electrical circuit, the ohmmeter must first be calibrated. If the value of resistance to be measured can be estimated within reasonable limits, a range selected that will give approximately half-scale deflection when the resistance is inserted between the probes. If the resistance is unknown, the selector switch is set on the highest scale. Whatever range is selected, the meter must be calibrated to read zero before the unknown resistance is measured.

"O" RING: A doughnut-shaped ring of rubber used as a seal around the periphery of the mating insulator interface of cylindrical connectors.

Over current: Any current in excess of the rated current of equipment or the ampacity of a conductor. It may result from overload, short circuit or ground fault.

Overload: Load greater than the load for which the system or mechanism was intended. A fault, such as a short circuit or ground fault, is not an overload.

Panel board: A single panel or group of panel units designed for assembly in the form of a single panel includes buses and may come with or without switches and/or automatic over current protective devices for the control of light, heat, or power circuits of individual as well as aggregate capacity. It is designed to be placed in a cabinet or cutout box that is in or against a wall or partition and is accessible only from the front.

Peak Demand: A one hour period in a year representing the highest point of customer consumption of electricity.

Plenum: Chamber or space forming a part of an air conditioning system.

Power Factor: It is the cosine angle between voltage and current.

Power Pool: A regional organization of electric companies interconnected for the sharing of reserve generating capacity.

Peak Power: the maximum amount of power in watts (W) the generating equipment will produce.

Public Utility: A business enterprise rendering a service considered essential to the public and, as such, subject to regulation.

Rated Power: the maximum amount of wattage (W) the equipment is rated for
Scrubbers: Equipment designed to reduce sulfur emissions from coal-fired generating plants.

Separately Derived System: A premises wiring system whose power is derived from a battery, a solar photovoltaic system, or from a generator, transformer, or converter windings, and that has no direct electrical connection, including solidly connected grounded circuit conductor, to supply conductors originating in another system.

Service Area: The territory in which a utility has the right to supply service.

Service Conductors: The set of wires, often bundled, that takes electricity from the transformer on the pole directly to the house or business. Referred to as service cable when installed underground. Also known as Service Wire.

Service Drop: Run of cables from the power company's aerial power lines to the point of connection to a customer's premises.

Service Entrance Conductors(Overhead): The service conductors between the terminals of the service equipment and a point usually outside the building, clear of building walls, where joined by tap or splice to the service drop.

Service Entrance Conductors (Underground): The service conductors between the terminals of the service equipment and the point of connection to the service lateral.

Service Equipment: The necessary equipment, usually consisting of a circuit breaker or switch and fuses and their accessories, located near the point entrance of supply conductors to a building and intended to constitute the main control and cutoff means for the supply to the building.

Service Lateral: The underground service conductors between the street main, including any risers at a pole or other structure or from transformers, and the first point of connection to the service-entrance conductors in a terminal box, meter, or other enclosure with adequate space, inside or outside the building wall. Where there is no terminal box, meter, or other enclosure with adequate space, the point of connection is the entrance point of the service conductors into the building.

Service Point: The point of connection between the facilities of the serving utility and the premises wiring.

Shield: Device surrounding that portion of a connector that is used for attaching wires or cables to shield against electromagnetic interference, and/or protect connector wires or cable from mechanical damage.

Substation: A facility where the voltage of electricity is reduced prior to distribution to customers.

Switchboard: A large single panel, frame, or assembly of panels having switches, over current, and other protective devices, buses, and usually instruments mounted on the face or back or both. Switchboards are generally accessible from the rear and from the front and are not intended to be installed in cabinets.

Switch, general use: A switch intended for use in general distribution and branch circuits. It is rated in amperes and is capable of interrupting its rated voltage.

Switch, general-use snap: A type of general-use switch so constructed that it can be installed in flush device boxes or on outlet covers, or otherwise used in conjunction with wiring systems recognized by the National Electric Code.

Switch, isolating: A switch intended for isolating an electrical circuit from the source of power. It has no interrupting rating and is intended to be operated only after the circuit has been opened by some other means.

Switch, knife: A switch in which the circuit is closed by a moving blade engaging contact clips.

Switch-Leg: That part of a circuit run from a lighting outlet box where a luminaries or lamp holder is installed down to an outlet box that contains the wall switch that turns the light or other load on or off: it is a control leg of the branch circuit.

Switch, motor-circuit: A switch, rated in horsepower, capable of interrupting the maximum operating overload current of a motor of the same horsepower rating as the switch at the rated voltage.

Switch, transfer: A transfer switch is an automatic or non automatic device for transferring one or more load conductor connections from one power source to another.

Thermal Shock: Thermal shock is the effect of heat or cold applied at such a rate that non-uniform thermal expansion or contraction occur within a given material or combination of materials. In connectors, the effect can cause inserts and other insulation materials to pull away from metal parts.

Transformer: Equipment vital to the transmission and distribution of electricity designed to increase or decrease voltage.
The transformer was invented by Michael Faraday in 1831 to enable him to demonstrate the phenomenon of electro-magnetic induction. In a transformer, two coils of wire are wound on opposite sides of a metal core. When an electric current is passed into one coil, a transient electric current is induced in the other. By varying the number of windings round the coils, the voltage can be increased or decreased. Because induction is a transient phenomenon, the transformation can be repeated very quickly. Electrical substations are large transformers, and thus the device is key to efficient transmission of high voltage alternating current (AC).

Transmission Lines: Power lines normally used to carry high voltage electricity to substations which then is "stepped down" for distribution to individual customers.
Van de Graff generator: A machine for generating very high voltage static electricity. It uses a high speed belt rubbing against a hollow metal sphere, which acts as a capacitor. Modern uses include X-ray tubes and the acceleration of electrons for food sterilization. The generator was developed by American physicist Robert J. Van de Graff (1901-1966), who began work on it in 1929.

Volt: The unit of electrical potential difference and electromotive force equal to the difference of potential between two points in a conducting wire carrying a constant current of one ampere when the power dissipated between these two points is equal to one watt and equivalent to the potential difference across a resistance of one ohm when one ampere is flowing through it.

Voltage Drop: The loss of voltage between the input to a device and the output from a device due to the internal impedance or resistance of the device. In all electrical systems, the conductors should be sized so that the voltage drop never exceeds 3% for power, heating, and lighting loads or combinations of these. Furthermore, the maximum total voltage drop for conductors for feeders and branch circuits combined should never exceed 5%.

Watt: The watt (symbol: W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one joule of energy per second. That is, if 1 volt of potential difference is applied to a resistive load, and a current of 1 ampere flows, then 1 watt of power is dissipated.

Electricity Act

The Electricity Act 2003 repeals a old legacy of 1910 and another of 1948 and has, in one stroke, forced the inevitability of total reforms in the electricity sector. No more can the States hide behind some excuse or the other not to unbundle the huge monoliths they have built over the past five decades.Who does it benefit and who are the losers? A close look into the Act and its possible effects in the future indicates interesting trends.The best beneficiary is industry - large and small - and the commercial establishments which have been hitherto bearing the brunt of the SEB onslaught in terms of high tariff, unstable supply, impossible conditions and the wrath of a state monopoly.Generation of electricity does not require any approvals from any body so long as the same is used for own use. Hitherto, the electricity boards had a strangling hold on captive generation often stipulating that a consumer pay a certain minimum demand charges, 30-50 per cent of the tariff on connected load as minimum monthly charges whether used or not, and serious restrictions on parallel and standalone use of the captive plants.Non-industrial users such as hotels, hospitals and commercial establishments were also subject to such restrictions and many electricity boards refused to wheel and set off power for these commercial users from their own windmills and mini hydels.The new-found freedom allows commercial and industrial users to set up their generation facilities and the industry is expected to use its freedom totally. The cement, paper, metal industries, petroleum, fertiliser, ferroalloys, and such other bulk user industries and the hotels and commercial establishments will switch over to captives in the next two or three years.They can use any easily available fuel - coal, gas, diesel, fuel oil - or any other conventional or non-conventional so long as they are able to generate stable power for their requirements all through the year without any interruption.The definition of captive generation includes cooperatives and association of persons and not necessarily industrial or commercial. As the captive markets grow, the industries also would look at using the open access system to produce power in remote stations - primarily pit heads - and transport the power cross-border to their consumption centres. Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Bihar, which have a large coal sources, will encourage setting up of pit-head power plants and the industries will seek crossborder transfer through the open access system. It is significant to note that the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission will be the authority to decide on the transmission cost so long as inter-state issues are concerned. Thus, the pit-head stations need not depend on the state-level bureaucracy for determining the inter-state wheeling charges.Under Sections 38 and 39, the Centre and the State governments are empowered to charge a surcharge for authorising open access for transmission; primarily to cover the loss of cross-subsidies the electricity boards have been collecting from industrial consumers to support other weaker sections.The Act has stipulated that while the ERCs have powers to levy a surcharge to cover these cross-subsidies, they have to ensure that these cross-subsidies are not continued beyond a specified time-frame to be in consultation with the respective governments.However, under 38 (2) (d) (ii) and 39 (2) (d) (ii) reading as "Provided also that such surcharge shall not be leviable in case the open access is provided to such a person who has established a captive generating plant for carrying electricity to a destination of his own use", this surcharge cannot be collected from captive generation units.Thus, the captive users of all classes are fully exempted from the need to support the cross-subsidies which they have been bearing all along. Thus, the captives are fully free whether they are set up inside their premises or outside and use open access for transmission. This is a great boon for the consumers. At this stage, it is to be emphasised that the Electricity Act has not been partial to the `haves' only. By including cooperatives and association of persons in the captive generation, the Act has envisaged that any community can plan captive plants jointly so long as they find this viable.This is to be taken note of by NGOs as well as leading electricity equipment suppliers so that they can look for viable consumer groups for setting up economic viability of captive generation. In fact, there is a large market in villages for captive generation and distribution under stand-alone system and smaller village communities will become good profitable propositions as they are more eager to pay for the electricity so long as stable and uninterrupted power is available to them.Incidentally, in view of the Sections 38 and 39, the recent Electricity Tax, as levied by the Government of Tamil Nadu, under the new Act enacted by the Government, may not be legally valid to the extent related to captive users. The new Act by Tamil Nadu was passed after the Electricity Act 2003 was passed by both Houses of Parliament and, hence, the intent maybe questionable.Who are the losers? The EBs. Over the next two or three years, while the captive generation systems are set all over the country, including smaller village communities, the EBs or the Transcos, Gencos and Discoms as their arms would be called, will have no consumers unless they adopt themselves to a retail and viable distribution models.This would mean significant reduction in transmission losses and thefts, less interference from the political system, efficient management of the generation and transmission facilities and setting up of affordable tariffs. Open access will develop only if viable and affordable wheeling charges are levied. In the absence of this, users and communities will tend to move away from using these transmission assets by delinking themselves from the grid.The electricity boards will suddenly find in the next three years that they have no demand for the electricity produced or bought by them and they would be under severe pressure on tariff because of market factors. The bureaucracy will be faced with market-related realities and if they do not cope, one will find that their establishment collapsing over the next five to ten years. In this context I am reminded of the recent controversy in the US about outsourcing jobs to India, China and other countries.While in the short run, this may be harmful to the job markets for US citizens, long-term economics will reveal that continuation of these jobs in US will lead those companies to economic disaster and liquidation. Electricity boards are in the same boat and the Employees Unions must have realised this and allowed the states to reform the sector long back. Now they are driven to a corner and they are damned if reformed and damned if continued in the present status. The Act has let the consumers flee the stables.Some of the IPPs are supplying power at a huge cost - naphtha units, lignite units - and some of the state units are running at very low efficiencies, thus significantly increasing the cost of procurement. While the inefficient units can be closed down or modernised to reduce costs, the high-cost IPPs are under long-term contracts and the high cost is not due to their doing. It was due to the high cost of fuel on which they have no control. In a highly developmental market, these high tariffs are not sustainable and hence the PPAs have to be dealt with contractually.The Central and State governments will need to sit together and work out a mechanism to set up a long-term fund to buy back the IPPs on contractual terms if they cannot be made viable so that they are not a burden to the current economics. The cost of removing such redundancies have to be borne by the system over a long term and stronger economies have come out successful when redundancies and inefficiencies are removed from the system.There is a strong feeling that the villages and the rural electrification process will be seriously hampered by the Act. This not a correct situation. The Act allows freedom and the rural communities can delink from the system and go for standalone systems. While the industrial and commercial consumers may have supported the cross-subsidies arising out of the deficits of the EBs, the rural communities have been sacrificing their growth over the last 50 years. They have not been able to demand more efficient, regular and uninterrupted supplies of electricity because of free or concessional supply.The new Act gives the rural communities freedom. They no more have to suffer the metro and urban demands. They can also demand for good and efficient service for quality and uninterrupted power. While in the short run, they may look for support, in the long run,they would enjoy the freedom and use the same to their benefit. The richer communities have a responsibility to hold their hands for a short time in the interim. At the end, there are no losers; the Act is a win-win situation and it is in the hands of the bureaucrats and employees unions to force the acceleration of the reforms process, and if they do not, they would be left behind to handle the mess, while other communities - industrial, commercial, urban, metro and rural - move along and carry the benefits themselves.

INDIAN ELECTRICITY RULES, 1956

INDIAN ELECTRICITY RULES, 1956
General Safety Precautions
1. Construction, installation, protection, operation and main electric supply lines and
apparatus . - All electric supply lines and apparatus shall be sufficient in power and size
and of sufficient -mechanical strength for the work they may be required to do, and, so far
as is shall be constructed, installed, protected, worked and maintained in accordance
with the standards of the Indian Standards Institution so as to prevent danger.
2. Service lines and apparatus on consumer's premises. -
i. The supplier shall ensure that all electric supply lines, wires, fittings, and
apparatus belonging to him or under his control, which are on a consumer's
premises, are in a safe condition and in all respects fit for supplying energy he
supplier shall take due precautions to avoid danger arising on premises from
such supply lines, wires, fittings and apparatus.
ii. Service lines placed by the supplier on the premises of a consumer which are
underground or which are accessible shall be so insulated and protected by the
supplier as to be secured under all ordinary conditions mechanical, chemical or
other injury to the insulate.
iii. The consumer shall, as far as circumstances permit, take precautions for the
safe custody of the equipment on his premises belonging to the supplier.
iv. The consumer shall also ensure that the installation under his control is
maintained in a safe condition.
3. Cut-out consumer's premises. -
i. The supplier shall provide a suitable cut-out in each conductor of every serviceline
other than an earthed or earthed neutral conductor or the earthed external
conductor of a concentric cable within consumer's premises, in an accessible
position. Such cut-out shall be maintained within an adequately enclosed fireproof
receptacle.
ii. Where more than one consumer is supplied through a common service line, each
such consumer shall be provided with an independent cut-out of junction to the
common service.
iii. The owner of every electric supply line, other than the earthed or earthed neutral
conductor of any system, or the earthed external conductor of a concentric
cableble, shall protect it by a suitable cut-out.
4. Identification of earthed and earthed neutral conductors and position of switches
and cut-outs therein - Where the conductors include an earthed conductor of a two-wire
system or an earthed neutral conductor of a multi-wire system or a conductor which is to
be connected thereto, the following conditions shall be complied with: -- (1) An indication
of a permanent nature shall be provided by the owner of the earthed or earthed neutral
conductor, or the conductor which is to connected thereto enable such conductor to be
distinguished from any live conductor.
Caution Notices
The owner of every medium, high and extra high voltage installation shall affix permanently in
conspicuous position a caution notice in Hindi and the local language of the district, and of a type
approved by the Inspector ona.
Every motor, generator, transformer and other electrical plant and equipment together
with apparatus used for controlling or regulating the same.
b. All supports of high, and extra-high voltage overhead lines
c. Luminous tube sign requiring high voltage supply, X-ray and similar high-frequency
installations: Provided that where it is not possible to affix such notices on any generator,
motor, transformer or other apparatus, they shall be affixed as near as possible thereto:
Provided further that where the generator, motor, transformer or other apparatus is within
an enclosure, one notice affixed to the said enclosure shall be sufficient for the purpose
of this rule.
Accident charge - The owners of all circuits and apparatus shall so arrange them that there shall
be no danger of any part thereof becoming accidentally charged to any voltage beyond the limits
of voltage for which they are intended. Where A. C. and D. C. circuits are installed on the same
support they shall be so arranged and protected that they shall not come into contact with each
other when live.
Precautions to be adopted by consumers, owners, electrical contractors electrical
workmen and suppliers.
I. No electrical installation work including additions, alterations, repairs and adjustments to
existing installation, except such replacement of lamps, fans, fuses, switches, low voltage
domestic appliances and fittings as in no way alters its capacity or character, shall be
carried out upon the premises of or on behalf of any consumer or owner, for the purpose
of supply to such consumer or owner, except by an electrical contractor licensed in this
behalf by the State Government under the direct supervision of a person holding a
certificate of competency issued or recognised by the State Government: Provided that in
case of works executed for or on behalf of the central government and in the case of
installations in mines, oil fields and railways, the Central Government and in other cases
the State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, exempt, on such
conditions as it may impose, any such work described therein either generally or in the
case of any specified class of consumers or owners from so much of this sub-rule as
requires such work to be carried out by an electrical contractor licensed by the State ate
Government in this behalf.
II. No electrical installation work which has been carried out in, contravention of sub-rule (1)
shall be connected with the works of a suppliers.
III. The provisions of sub-rule (1) shall come into force in respect of a State or part thereof on
such data as the State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, appoint:
Provided that the said provisions shall come into force in any field, mine or railway or in
respect of any work carried out by, or on bet of, the Central Government only on such
data as the Central Government may, by like notification, appoint.