24 Hours Electricity

By today evening, it will be 48 hours since we got connected to the government electricity supply which provides us with almost 24 hours of electricity. As in most parts of the country, we don't expect the supply to be there for the whole 24 hours. So far, there was a interruption of only about 2 hours. Otherwise the voltage has been very good. 

We praise God. 

And coincidentally, we got our connection on the 53rd Founder's Day (November 20th). 

There are few aspects for which we specifically want to specifically praise and thank the Lord. 

1. Not having regular electricity has been one of the reasons why quite a few staff did not stay on at NJH. Now, that is going to be old story. 

2. We have an exclusive connection to the hospital now. The village connection is separate. Earlier, the nearby village and the hospital had shared the same transformer and that caused a lot of problems. 

3. Along with the new connection, the electricity board was kind enough to remove all the high tension wires which crisscrossed the campus. 

4. Almost all of our voltage stabilizers are of no use. Because the voltage is too good. We praise God. 

5. The best of all . . . We did not pay any speed money for obtaining the exclusive High Tension Connection and our own transformer. So, we can get things here without bribes. We praise God that we found favor in the eyes of many an official of the Jharkhand Electricity Board. Of course, there were times, when there was quite a lot of pressure to make some payments to speed up the process. We thank the Lord that we could hold on to our principles. 

I thank the Lord for the maintenance department under the leadership of Dinesh who worked worked untiringly and generously in spite of many setbacks and challenges. 

We've ended up spending almost 700,000 INR to get the infrastructure that has facilitated the process of exclusive and seamless connection. So far, we've spend all this from funds generated from patient care. We pray that we would be able to receive gifts from friends and well-wishers to recover this spending so that we can spend more on patient care.

Electricity . . . Round the Clock

Since the last 4 months, we do not have government electricity connection to the campus.

Everything started off sometime in the middle of June, when the transformer that supplies our hospital including the surrounding villages blew up. Historically, the transformer was installed for the use of the hospital, but over time, the local villages also took connections from the same one. In spite of multiple requests for a separate transformer for the hospital, there was no response from the electricity department.

After the transformer blew up, we were into major trouble before we knew it. We already had a transformer donated from one of our sister units. We had applied for getting a separate connection. It was taking time. Meanwhile the replacement of the old electricity board transformer was not of the same quality as that of the previous one. The old one had copper winding. The new one had aluminium winding, which ensured that the quality was much inferior to the old one.

We connected the original load to the new transformer. It was just not able to manage the load. The villagers wanted to have the transformer all for themselves. They insisted that we get a separate transformer. We did not press the matter as we did not want to take any step which will antagonise the local village. Unfortunately, none of the village leaders thought about the need for hospital to have electricity.

We went to the Electricity Board and told of our predicament. It took quite a long time for permission to reach us. Unfortunately, after permission reached us, we were in for more trouble than expected.

The new transformer that we got as a donation blew up. Not once but twice. To cut the story short, we have sent the transformer for a complete overhaul. It would take another 10 days before it is ready.

Since June middle, the hospital is only running on generator except for couple of days when the transformer worked well. Our extra costs for diesel for the generators is almost 200,000 INR per month.

Our maintenance department under Dinesh was totally involved in this matter for the last 4 months. We thank the Lord for this group who toiled day and night to ensure that we would have answers.

Dinesh and co. trying to get the transformer repaired the first time it blew up. 

View from one of the transmission towers. Pic. courtesy. Mr. A Dinesh

In the middle of all these disappointments we’ve a matter of praise. About a month back, a new electricity sub-station has been commissioned in Latehar district. Within a month, another sub-station would start functioning in Daltonganj. This means that we’ve almost 22 hours of electricity a day in the government transmission. Soon, this can go up to a 24 hour electricity supply.

There is a major challenge here too. So far, the electricity transmission lines have been used to only a low voltage. With the arrival of the new substations, the voltage has gone up to normal levels. We hear that quite often there are breakdowns in transmission. Please pray that all this will be rectified by the time the refurbished transformer arrives. Considering the need of round the clock electricity, we also need to plan for one more transformer as a standby.

We request prayers that we would have electricity by the end of this month. Please pray for financial resources too as almost 500,000 INR has been spent so far. And now, there is the cost of refurbishing the transformer as well as purchasing a stand-by transformer. 

The transformer on it's way to Ranchi for an overhaul . . .