As various stakeholders strongly opposed the proposal to hike power tariff, Managing Director of Hubballi Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) M. Muniraju defended the proposal saying that it had become necessary as even after bringing down transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, HESCOM had incurred losses to the tune of ₹974.77 crore.
Defending the proposal at the KERC public hearing on Monday, Mr. Muniraju said that HESCOM was purchasing power at ₹5.34 per unit as against ₹4.21 last year as the power purchase rates had increased.
Mr. Muniraju said that HESCOM had managed to bring down T&D losses to just 14.10% which was well within the limit prescribed by KERC.
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HESCOM has effectively implemented the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti, the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IDPS), and installation of new transformers and underground cables. So far, laying of 450 km trackline and 1,221 km looplines had been completed, he said.
Elaborating on various development initiatives, he said that HESCOM was supplying uninterrupted 24-hour power supply in three phase to 788 feeders and under Nirantar Jyoti scheme for IP sets, three-phase power supply was being ensured to 2,040 feeders. This apart, 24.27 lakh LED bulbs had been sold saving 220 million units of power and 31,745 LED tubelights were sold saving 2.67 million units of power, he said. Mr. Muniraju appealed to the KERC to allow power tariff revision of 0.73 paise per unit as escalating power purchase rates and increased losses had necessitated it.