TERI report presents rosy picture of franchisee system in Agra
LUCKNOW: A policy research organisation’s report, which the Yogi Adityanath government has purportedly made the basis of its decision to privatise power distribution in Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Moradabad, has presented quite a rosy picture of the performance of Torrent Power Ltd (TPL) in Agra, where the company has been distributing electricity as a franchisee for eight years.
Power employees and consumer bodies are up in arms against the state government’s decision to replicate the Agra model in five more cities.
In its study titled ‘Performance Assessment of Electricity Distribution Franchisee of Agra’, TERI has found the government’s decision to hand over distribution franchise to Torrent in 2010 as a win-win for the franchisee (TPL), the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) as well as consumers.
The TERI, according to principal secretary, energy and UPPCL chairman, Alok Kumar, was asked to undertake a detailed ground-level assessment of electricity supply position and consumer service delivery in the franchisee area of Agra. “It presented the report last month with a lot of positive feedback, encouraging the UPPCL to introduce a similar system in some other cities for larger public interest,” he said
In 2009, the UPPCL’s subsidiary Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (DVVNL) made a Distribution Franchisee Agreement (DFA) with the Torrent Power Ltd to improve operational efficiency of power distribution system in Agra.
“TPL has carried out system
strengthening and operational efficiency improvement through various initiatives like improved billing and collection mechanism, effective customer grievance redress mechanisms etc,” TERI claims in its report.
According to the study, capital expenditure of ₹800 crore was reportedly made by TPL, during the first seven years of the operation. The augmented infrastructure, improved quantum of power supply and good operation and maintenance practices have resulted in meeting higher peak demand of about 425 MVA in 2016-17 as compared to about 381 MVA in 2011-2012. The franchisee, the report says, brought down the distribution losses dramatically with the result that it is meeting the increased demand without an increase in additional power purchase suggesting a large amount of electricity that was being stolen earlier is now
being to meet the additional demand. The report points out: “While the electricity supply available to the TPL at input point by the DVVNL every year during the period 2010-11 to 2016-17 has remained around 2,100 MU (million units), the supply available to consumers over the years of operation of the franchisee has shown substantial rise from 1,025 MU in 2010-11 to about 1,560 MU in 2016-17 due to reduction in distribution losses from 51.5% to 25.5%,” the report says.
The study further claims that significant improvement has been reported in meter reading efficiency, billing efficiency and collection efficiency from respective levels of 65.35%, 82% and 94% in 2010-11 to 96.4%, 99% and 97% in 2016-17. “As a result, Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses have reduced from 61.8% to 27.2% in the seven years of operation.