Centre Moves To Pare T & D Losses To Under 15%

The government has undertaken a major programme to upgrade and strengthen the power distribution system in the country. It plans to reduce transmission and distribution (T&D) losses across states to below 15 per cent from current levels of around 50 per cent.

"Distribution is the weakest link in the chain of power supply. Reforms in distribution have consequently been identified as the focus area in the sector's liberalisation process," a power ministry official said.

Development of district level distribution improvement plans for all districts in the country, setting up of committees for monitoring distribution reforms and district level generation resource planning are among the steps chalked out for tackling the losses, power ministry officials said.

Systematic distribution sector reforms including 100 per cent metering of electricity distributed, converting 11 kv feeders into independent profit centres and upgrading transformers to minimise interruptions are already underway with an objective to reduce losses to below 15 per cent, officials said.

Transmission and distribution losses have reached high levels of around 50 per cent of which more than half is commercial loss due to rampant theft and pilferage of electricity, meter tampering, unauthorised connections and unmetered supply.

Out of the total energy generated in the country, only 55 per cent (Rs 62,000 crore) is billed and only 41 per cent (Rs 46,000 crore) is finally realised. The balance 59 per cent is attributed to T&D losses, officials said.

According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) estimates, reduction of technical T&D losses is likely to augment plant capacity by almost 10,000-12,000 mw, officials said. Commercial losses of all the state electricity boards (SEBs) put together have reached Rs 26,013 crore in 2000-01.

The power ministry has already identified 60 distribution circles in different states for improvement of the sub-transmission and distribution network under the accelerated power development programme (APDP).

A detailed project report is being prepared for undertaking distribution reforms in all the 350 distribution circles throughout the country and a detailed proposal would be taken to the cabinet soon.

Government has also initiated demand side management to save up to 30-40 per cent of power. About 5-6 load despatch centres are also being established to monitor flow of power and collect data at national level, officials said.