The Energy Department has prepared a roadmap for upgrading Transmission and Distribution (T&D) systems and enhancing the financial and operational performance of DISCOMs so as to ensure quality, cost-effective and reliable (24x7) power supply.
According to senior officials, the department has targeted a 12-15% reduction in the Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses. The AT&C is a combination of energy loss (technical losses plus theft plus inefficiency in billing) and commercial losses (defaults in payments plus inefficiency in collection).
It has also been contemplated to reduce the Aggregate Revenue Realised – Average Cost of Service gap (ACS-ARR) to zero by 2024-25 against ₹1.45 per unit (₹8,120 crore) in 2020, which was ₹2.26 per unit (₹12,325 crore) in 2019.
With the support of the Ministry of Power, the Energy Department is also planning to create demand-driven infrastructure for faultless supply of electricity to consumers.
As part of this, the department is planning segregation of agriculture feeders which allows shifting agriculture load towards green energy.
Works under way
The DISCOMs have already completed 77 new substations and laying of 19,503-km-long 33kv, 11kv and LT lines at a cost of approximately ₹525 crore.
At the same time, the utilities have laid focus on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Distribution Management System (DMS).
SCADA is a globally accepted means of real-time monitoring of electricity power systems, particularly generation and transmission systems and the DMS facilitates outage management.
Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy directed the top officials of the Energy Department to take up the above projects on a priority basis.
Energy Secretary and TRANSCO CMD N. Srikant, Joint Managing Director K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu and the CMDs of DISCOMs have initiated necessary steps, according to a press release by State Energy Conservation Mission CEO A. Chandra Sekhar Reddy.