The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Kerala bags award for power sector efficiency

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala bags award for power sector efficiency

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Indian Chamber of Commerce has adjudged Kerala as the second best performing State in the power sector, Electricity Minister A.K. Balan said.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said he had received the award on behalf of the State from Union Minister for Power Sushil Kumar Shinde at the third Energy Summit in New Delhi on Thursday.

“Kerala was ahead in scores in 11 of the 12 parameters taken for deciding the award. We slipped behind only in the matter of initiatives taken in restructuring the power sector to facilitate privatisation. But that is a matter of our policy,” Mr. Balan said, after handing over the award he had received from Mr. Shinde to KSEB chairman Rajeev Sadanandan.

Kerala topped the score in parameters covering areas such as revenue efficiency and technical efficiency of its power sector. These included revenue collection efficiency, revenue gap, subsidy support from the government, quality of power supply, peak load management, transmission and distribution loss and energy conservation initiatives, Mr. Balan said.

Training programmes

He said the effort of the government was to turn the KSEB into a world class institution before the close of the 11th Five Year Plan by raising the managerial and technical skills of the staff.

Top officials on the managerial side were being put through advanced training programmes at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, while those on the technical side were undergoing training programmes at Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, Engineering Staff College in Hyderabad and Centre for Energy Management in Gurgaon, he said.

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