Union Minister RK Singh chairs Review Planning & Monitoring meeting with states and states power utilities
Jan 25, 2023
New Delhi [India], January 25 : Union Minister of Power and Non-Renewable Energy (NRE) R K Singh on Wednesday chaired the Review Planning & Monitoring meeting with States and State Power Utilities in the presence of Krishan Pal, Minister of State for Power and Secretary (Power).
Union Minister Singh appreciated the efforts made by all the stakeholders in addressing AT&C's loss in the country which has resulted in an overall reduction of AT&C losses by 5 percent in the Financial Year (FY) 2021-22.
He recognized the efforts made by States, who have achieved more than a 3 percent reduction in AT&C losses from FY 2020-21 to FY 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. A few States like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, and Uttarakhand were also appreciated for steadily maintaining their losses within reasonable limits.
Further, the States that have not been able to improve on their losses were advised to take up measures for achieving loss reduction targets under RDSS.
The Minister stressed the need to address inefficiencies in the distribution sector with priority on the reduction of losses, maintaining proper subsidy accounts, energy accounting, and ensuring prepaid smart metering implementation to enhance revenue realization and thereby avoid undesirable borrowings.
"Various aspects related to the financial viability of the power sector and issues related to fiscal discipline and payment of dues towards GENCOs were also deliberated. The Minister also emphasized the importance of implementing Time of Day (ToD) tariff to ensure flattening of load curves while ensuring that tariff for solar hours be kept reasonable" he added
During the meeting, the status of Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) launched by the Government of India to enhance operational efficiency to ensure the financial viability of the distribution sector was discussed and the state-wise progress of the scheme was deliberated in detail.
The Minister reviewed the state-wise performance of DISCOMs/Power Departments, compliance with Pre-Qualification Criteria under RDSS, Progress on RDSS implementation, and other key elements including subsidy and energy accounting, corporate governance, etc.
RK Singh laid importance on the implementation of smart metering in pre-paid mode. The states have been 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 an actual load basis.
The Union Minister also highlighted the benefits of solarization of agriculture feeders as it will provide power, at a lower cost, during the daytime to agriculture consumers and reduce the subsidy burden of the state government.
The practices adopted for disaster resilience in power distribution infrastructure, consumer engagement for smart meter deployment, IT initiatives in power distribution, and subsidy accounting mechanisms were shared in the meeting. The Minister emphasized collaboration and adoption by other states.
R K Singh stressed the need to conduct a survey on the availability of power in rural and urban areas. Results of such survey shall be reviewed after the implementation of RDSS with a view to ensuring 24x7 power supply throughout the country.
