Power Minister appreciates efforts to bring down technical, commercial losses

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IANS | 26 Jan, 2023
Power Minister R.K. Singh has said that due to efforts put in by all stakeholders, the aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C) losses had come down by an overall 5 per cent in 2021-22.

He also recognised the efforts made by states, which have achieved more than 3 per cent reduction in AT&C losses from 2020-21 to 2021-22, and appreciated the initiatives taken to meet such reduction.

These states include Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tripura, and West Bengal.

Singh made these observations while chairing a review meeting with states and state power utilities on Monday and Tuesday.

In the meeting, the states, that have not been able to improve on their losses, were advised to take up measures for achieving loss reduction targets under the revamped distribution sector scheme (RDSS).

The minister stressed on the need to address inefficiencies in distribution sector with priority on reduction of losses, maintaining proper subsidy accounts, energy accounting and to ensure prepaid smart metering implementation to enhance revenue realisation and thereby avoiding undesirable borrowings.

Singh also laid importance on implementation of smart metering in pre-paid mode.

The states were advised to expedite the implementation of the scheme. The states were further advised to ensure that no penalty be levied on any consumer for higher load discovered after installation of prepaid smart meter and billing may be done on actual load basis.

Various aspects related to financial viability of power sector and issues related to fiscal discipline and payment of dues towards power generation companies (GENCOs) were also deliberated upon.

During the meeting, status of the RDSS launched by the government to enhance operational efficiency and to ensure financial viability of the distribution sector, was also discussed and its state-wise progress deliberated in detail.