CESC Limited

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Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited

RPSG Group
Website	cesc.co.in

The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) is the

. It also serves power distribution in Kota, Bikaner and Bharatpur in Rajasthan under the name CESC RAJASTHAN. It serves 3.0 million consumers approximately, which includes domestic, industrial and commercial users.

History

The first demonstration of electric light in Calcutta was conducted on 24 July 1879 by P W Fleury & Co. In 1881, 36 electric lights lit up a Cotton Mill of Mackinnon & Mackenzie. The Government of Bengal passed the Calcutta Electric Lighting Act in 1895. The first license covered an area of 5.64 square miles (14.6 km²). On 7 January 1897 Kilburn & Co. secured the Calcutta electric lighting license as agents of The Indian Electric Company Limited. The company soon changed its name to the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited and in 1897, The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited was registered in London.

On 17 April 1899, the first thermal power plant of The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited was commissioned at Emambagh Lane near Prinsep Ghat, heralding the beginning of thermal power generation in India. The Calcutta Tramways Company switched to electricity from horse-drawn carriages in 1902. Three new power generating stations were started by 1906. In 1931, CESC Tunnel was made under Hooghly River for electric power transmission from Kolkata to Howrah.^[3] The company was shifted to the Victoria House in Dharmatala, Kolkata in 1933, and still operates from this address.

In 1970, the control of the Company was transferred from London to Calcutta. In 1978 it was named "The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Ltd." The RPG Group was associated with The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Limited from 1989, and the name was changed from The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Limited to CESC Limited. In 2011, CESC became a part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, which was formed on 13 July 2011 by Sanjiv Goenka, the youngest son of Dr RP Goenka, the late founder of RPG Enterprises.

Operations

(interruption of power supply due to shortage of electricity) was common in Kolkata during the 1970s and 1980s. But from 1990s, the situation had improved and the Calcutta power grid has progressively given better performance and fewer outages.

CESC owns and operates 4

. For a long-term solution, CESC is looking to acquire coal mines in Indonesia.

CESC also has its own Transmission & Distribution system through which it supplies electricity to its consumers. This system comprises a 474-kilometre (295 mi) circuit of transmission lines linking the company's generating and receiving stations with 85 distribution stations; a 3,837-kilometre (2,384 mi) circuit of HT lines further linking distribution stations with LT substations, large industrial consumers and a 9,867-kilometre (6,131 mi) circuit of LT lines connecting its LT substations to LT consumers.

Existing power plants

Power station	Location	Installed Capacity ( MW )	Type
Budge Budge Thermal Power Station	Budge Budge, Kolkata, West Bengal	750	Coal-fired
Southern Thermal Power Station	Garden Reach, Kolkata, West Bengal	135	Coal-fired
Dhariwal Power Station	Chandrapur, Maharashtra	600	Coal-fired
Haldia Energy Power Station	Haldia, West Bengal	600	Coal-fired
Titagarh Thermal Power Station	Titagarh, West Bengal	240	Coal-fired
TOTAL		2,325

CESC's vintage Mulajore power station, which was located in north Kolkata, was shut down on 15 May 2004. It was inaugurated by the then Bengal Governor Sir John Arthur Herbert in January 1940 and was one of the oldest plants in the system of CESC. The plant employed around 500 employees but hardly generated more than 25 MW, even though it had a derated capacity of 60 MW. With a high auxiliary consumption (the energy required to generate power), it used to feed just about 18 MW to the system. The New Cossipore and the Mulajore plants together used to generate only 10% of CESC's power generation but accounted for 59% of the company's workforce. Following the sale of Mulajore plant and machinery, the 43 acres (0.17 km²) of land was used to set up an industrial-cum-residential township venture executed by CESC Properties, a wholly owned CESC subsidiary. CESC's New Cossipore unit, in turn, was hamstrung by a serious pollution constraint and was hauled up by West Bengal Pollution Control Board last year.^{[clarification needed]}

Power Plants outside Kolkata

In September 2013, the first unit of CESC's 2x300 MW thermal power project, and the first one outside West Bengal, was successfully synchronised at Chandrapur, Maharashtra. A 400 kV

4.91 a unit from its Chandrapur power plant.

References

External links

Media related to CESC Limited at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Rajasthan website
• Clippings about CESC Limited in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW