Telangana power discoms trip in ranks, slip from bad to worse

HYDERABAD: Telangana power discoms, which have been facing financial stress for the past few years, have performed poorly in the 10th Integrated Ratings-Power Distribution Utilities. Both Telangana State Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) and Telangana State Northern Power Distribution Company (TSNPDCL) have been ranked C- (C minus) by the Union ministry of power.
According to the report, TSSPDCL has been placed at 45th place among 52 discoms, while TSNPDCL was ranked 38 on the list.

The rankings were given based on power utilities' power purchase cost, gap between cost of power supply and revenue realisation and other parameters. "The reason for the poor performance of the power utilities in the state was due to high power purchase cost and losses. TSSPDCL had registered 4,246 crore losses, while NPDCL reported 2,440 crore losses in 2020-2021 financial year," the report said.
It also suggested financial sustainability, the Southern power discom has to improve revenue realisation, which was at 90% of the revenue, improve payments to Genco and Transco, which was being paid at 306 days apart from other issues. It also said performance pertaining to operation and maintenance cost and interests declined in the past two years.
The report pointed out that there has been low subsidy realisation for the past three financial years, which is currently 89% and that govt dues were also significant.