Category: T&D losses

Even as there is incessant talk from top echelons in the ruling establishment of electrifying all villages in the country and making power available to each and every household for maximum duration in a day, the most crucial wheel required for making this happen and which must run smoothly at the desired pace has got stuck. The irony is that the political brass is only paying lip service to the urgent need for extricating it. The reference here is to the power distribution companies [discoms] – mostly owned and controlled by state governments which procure electricity from the independent power producers [IPPs], public sector undertakings [PSUs] viz. National Thermal Power Corporation [NTPC], Damodar Valley Corporation [DVC] etc besides their own...

The uninterrupted supply of requisite units of power at competitive rate to industries helps them reduce the cost of production. This along with lower cost of other infrastructure such as transport, storage and handling etc can give them the strength to compete in the domestic and international markets. This will also enable them temper their resistance to multilateral trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership [RCEP] – between the 10 members of ASEAN plus 6 countries outside the group viz. Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China and India – which promise manifold increase in access to markets but are stymied by fear of low cost import consequent to elimination of customs duty mooted under these agreements. Yet,...

The state electricity boards [SEBs]/power distribution companies [PDCs] occupy a pivotal position in the electricity landscape of India. Besides owning generation plants and transmission infrastructure/lines, they are engaged primarily in supply and distribution of power [own plus quantity purchased from independent power producers (IPPs)]  providing last mile connectivity to homes, farmers, industrial units and business establishments etc. Maintaining SEBs/PDCs in a state of robust health is of paramount importance to ensure uninterrupted supply of quality power in requisite measure to the users, making timely payments to IPPs and suppliers of raw material such as coal [to keep their own generation stations running], ensuring proper upkeep and maintenance of the transmission/distribution infrastructure and timely servicing of loans taken from banks/financial institutions...

The government of Telangana has decided to give 24×7 free power to all farmers in the state from January 1, 2018. A member of parliament [MP] from Telangana Rashtra Samithi [TRS] – the ruling party in the state –  wanted the prime minister, Modi to recognize this singular achievement that has never been seen before in any other state. The union minister for railways and coal, Piyush Goyal even while  respecting the decision of state government [in deference to the federal character of the constitution] nonetheless advised the latter to make adequate provision in its budget to subsidize the losses resulting from its decision to supply free power. What Goyal was alluding to requires elucidation. Assume that the power consumed...

On the eve of a meeting with state power ministers to discuss comprehensive reforms in the power sector, in a free-wheeling interview with a leading business daily, union power minister, RK Singh has come up with four ideas viz. (i) cross-subsidy will be restricted to 20% from fiscal year 2019-20; (ii) tariff hike to cover losses of state electricity boards [SEBs]/power distribution companies [PDCs] will be capped at 15% from April 2019; (iii) innovative measures to reduce technical and commercial [T&C] loss of SEBs/PDCs and (iv) direct benefit transfer [DBT] of power subsidy. If, the multitude of problems facing the power sector including huge recurring losses of SEBs/PDCs could be solved by issuing diktats, this could have been achieved long ago. During...

For India now progressively moving towards an energy use configuration that is environment friendly [increase in share of non-fossil fuel such as nuclear, solar, wind, hydro etc], a steep decline in the cost of power generation based on solar and wind to level even below Rs 3 per unit – enabled primarily by reduction in the cost of equipment and services – has come as a boon. The state electricity boards [SEBs]/power distribution companies [PDCs] are keen to be a part of this transition and would like to procure power at a lower rate so that this benefit can be passed on to consumers. Besides, this will also help them in reducing losses and make their operations financially sustainable so...