Power transmission losses come down in Andhra Pradesh

VIJAYAWADA: The concerted efforts of the Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd (APTRANSCO) are proving effective as the state-run power company witnessed one of the lowest transmission losses in five years. The company is working to further bring down the transmission and distribution losses in the coming months by a multi-pronged strategy to become one of the best state-owned power transmission firms in the country.

The cumulative transmission losses for 2019-20 financial year stood at 2.91 per cent, the lowest since 2015. In fact, in March 2020, the losses worked out to be 2.86 per cent. These figures are way better than targeted losses fixed by the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) — 3.3 per cent. 
The trajectory of the annual transmission losses has been on the decline in the last five years, except during 2016-17 when the cumulative annual losses stood at 2.92 per cent, later increased to 3.13 per cent in 2017-18 only to come down in the following two years. 

When asked what steps yielded the positive results, joint managing director of APTRANSCO KVN Chakradhar Babu explained that they were reducing the length of extra high tension (EHT) line by constructing more 132/33 KV substations and by adding substations at higher voltages (400KV) based on the overall  system requirement. 

“Reorientation of line follows through reconfiguration of networks, installation of transformers wherever the length of the loads are higher, and replacing old lines with high efficiency conducts are some of the major initiatives which helped us in bringing down the losses,” the JMD told TNIE.  The company has significantly increased its circuit line and the number of substations since 2014. 

As per the statistics available on the Union Ministry of Power’s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) portal, the aggregate technical and commercial (AT and C) of AP is 10.9 per cent, lower than the national average of 18.95 per cent (26 States). AP also is one of the very few States after Himachal Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala to have lesser AT and C losses, which is a combination of energy loss (technical loss + theft + inefficiency in billing) and commercial loss (default in payment + inefficiency in collection). The APTRANSCO has a transmission capacity of 61,000 million units annually. Therefore, even a minor reduction in the losses will help the discoms and the state power sector in saving expenditure.