CESC Limited

The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation or CESC supplies electricity to area under the Kolkata municipal corporation in the city of Kolkata, India, mainly but also few areas of Howrah, Hooghly, 24 Parganas (North) and 24 Parganas (South) districts of West Bengal, India.

History

On 7 January 1897 Kilburn & Co. secured the Calcutta (Now Kolkata) electric lighting license as agents of The Indian Electric Company Limited. The company soon changed its name to the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Limited. The first power generating station was started on April 17 1899 near the Princep Ghat. The Calcutta Tramways Company switched to electricity from horse drawn carriages in 1902. Three new power generating stations were started by 1906. The company was shifted to the Victoria House in Dharmatala in 1933, and still operates from this address. Load-shedding (interruption of power supply due to shortage of electricity) was common in Kolkata during 1970s and 1980s. In 1978 the company was christened as The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Limited. The RPG Group was associated with The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Limited from 1989, and they change the name from The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Limited to CESC Limited. Recently the Calcutta power grid has seen progressively better performance and lesser outages.In the power sector, CESC, currently having a generating capacity of 1225 MW, has major plans to expand generating capacity to 7000 MW over the next five or six years. The new power generating projects – thermal, hydel and solar -- will involve investments of more than ` 30,000 crore.Presently CESC Ltd is the flagship company of RP-SANJIV GOENKA GROUP.

References

External links

• CESC homepage