KOLKATA: Jadavpur University is seeking help of electricity experts from CESC to work in tandem with its own electrical engineers and maintenance staff to assess the condition of cables and lines on the campus, address the shortcomings and prepare a proper power distribution flow chart. Various electrical installations like transformers, circuit breakers, fuse, air conditioners and other high consumption gadgets will be identified and marked on the chart.
The move has been prompted after two fires at JU campus this year. The first was in March-end at the illumination laboratory of electrical engineering department, and the second in April first week at Aurobindo Bhavan, the university’s administrative building.
Though the first incident gutted the lab and the second was doused before it caused much damage, JU authorities are keen to find out if there are areas of concern in its electrical distribution network that might lead to future mishaps and address them.
It was learnt that while the university’s electrical maintenance staff had an idea of what’s where, there is no physical or digital chart of electricity transformers, switchgears, cables, wires and various gadgets including ACs and lab equipment.
“We are drawing up a single line diagram (SLD) of the power distribution system for both main and Salt Lake campus of the university. This is not only essential to represent the distribution of power in any network, it will also help revamp the electrical infrastructure of JU,” said Arindam Kumar Sil, member of the committee and professor of electrical engineering at JU.
Registrar Snehamanju Basu said a committee had been formed for the purpose and it had started monitoring the health of electrical infrastructure.
“The fire at the lab in the electrical engineering department and another minor fire at the top floor of Aurobindo Bhavan called for an immediate attention on the upgradation and monitoring of the electric infrastructure. The present setup at JU is partially old. So it is essential to upgrade the capacity of the system, including cables and transformers,” said university engineer electrical (additional) Badal Sarkar.
