Telangana Discoms shed distribution losses by 1.4%

Gap in cost recovery also comes down to Rs. 0.23 per unit in July-Sept. quarter

Initiatives taken under Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) to improve the performance of two power distribution companies in the State have helped them reduce the technical and commercial losses in supply by 1.4% during the July-September quarter, of the current financial year.

The aggregate technical and commercial losses which were at 14.2% at the end of the first quarter, April-June period, have come down to 12.79% by the end of the second quarter. Although the progress made is sizeable, it falls short of the target of 10.96% fixed by the Ministry of Power under the scheme guidelines.

According to a report of the MoP on the performance of States’ power utilities under UDAY till September 30, the two distribution companies – Southern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd. (TSSPDCL) and Northern Power Distribution Company of Telangana Ltd. (TSNPDCL) have, however, made good progress in terms of bridging the gap between Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and Average Revenue Realised (ARR) to Rs. 0.23 per unit as against the target of Rs. 0.44 per unit.

The ACS-ARR gap was Rs. 0.75 per unit at the end of 2015-16 financial year and it was down to Rs. 0.64 per unit as on March 31. For the period ending September 30, the gap stood only at Rs. 0.03 per unit for Southern Discom but it still stands high at Rs. 0.44 per unit in case of Northern Discom. Till June-end, the cost recovery gap was Rs. 0.72 per unit for TSSPDCL and Rs. 0.43 per unit for the NPDCL.

“Reduced debt servicing burden to the tune of Rs. 890 crore annually after joining UDAY has helped the Discoms bring down the average power purchase cost”, a senior official of the Energy Department said.

“The technical and commercial losses in the Northern Discom are high at 15.04%, although the Southern Discom has brought them down considerably to 10.79%, which is lesser than the target of 10.96% fixed by the MoP”, the official said. The worrying factor is that the losses in the Northern Discom have gone up as they stood at 12.63% till June-end, he stated. The Southern Discom had losses at 14.97% during the same period.

Similarly, the two Discoms have also made good progress in the matter of reducing the operational losses till the end of first half of the current fiscal.