Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said his ministry is experimenting with a technology, brown- out, which can provide some power backup to households in the event of a grid failure leading to blackouts.
"The suggestion of brown-out was given to me by my friend and IIT Chennai Director Ashok Jhunjhunwala. In this, houses are provided with a lower power DC line along with the AC line that can prove an alternate source of electricity in case the grid fails and there is a blackout," he told reporters here.
The minister added that he discussed the technique with the officials in the Power Ministry and have started two pilot projects to test it.
Also Read
"Jhunjhunwala conducted a test on 100 houses in Chennai, but we wanted to test it on a larger scale. So, we started two pilot projects, one in Rajasthan's Falaudi and the other in Bihar's Sasaram. The technology looks a bit expensive, but it can help in providing an alternate source of power," he said.
In a bid to make electricity available to all, Goyal said government is planning to launch a scheme where consumers can pay for the new connection in monthly installments over a period of five years and will be able to avail the service on demand.
On village electrification, Goyal expressed confidence that the target of electrifying 18,452 villages will be achieved a year ahead of the set deadline of May 1, 2018.
"We will electrify all 18,452 villages by May 1, 2017, a year ahead of targetted deadline of May 1, 2018," the minister said.
However, he said that "there may be a few aberrations (consumers) that may be from very dense forest, left wind extremism affected area or possibly a consumer who does not want power or one does not apply for power.