CAG reports staggering power distribution losses in UP

Official auditor CAG has detected lapses in the functioning of state-owned electricity distribution company in eastern Uttar Pradesh that resulted in distribution losses of more than Rs 600 crore.     

The lacunae in the functioning of the Purvanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd, a subsidiary of the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), was revealed in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for 2007-08.      

The report noted that distribution losses of the Varanasi headquartered company, which is responsible for electricity distribution in 21 districts of eastern UP, for the period between 2004-05 and 2007-08 worked out to a staggering 13,843.73 million units (MU).      

This is nearly 2,000 MU higher than the tolerance limit set by the Uttar Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission, said a report by Comptroller and Auditor General of India.      

The report has blamed the energy losses, which have been defined as "the difference between the energy purchased and the energy sold to the consumers", on the absence of "adequate transformation capacity at the sub-stations so as to avoid the problem of voltage dropping and frequent tripping which causes excessive energy losses."      

"There was a gap of 2,566.837 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) of transformation capacity in comparison to connected load of the consumers at the end of March, 2008, which led to overloading on the system and caused loss of energy”, the report said.