Check power pilferage, discoms MDs told

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has the dubious distinction of being on the top in electricity theft often garbed as line losses.

On Saturday, principal secretary, energy and UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman, Alok Kumar has written a letter to all the discoms expressing concern over the state of affairs, asking them to make efforts on a warfooting to control power theft.

The move comes a few days before the Union power ministry meeting in Delhi on April 3 to review the electricity distribution with aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses above 40%, that is, divisions where only less than 60% of electricity supplied to consumers is paid for.

The letter stated that of the country’s 145 electricity divisions with more than 40% AT&C losses, 51 were in UP alone.

The cities, where capital investment has been made under the Revised-Accelerated Development Power Reform Programme (R-APDRP), were expected to bring AT&C losses down to 15%. The Union power ministry has now classified these cities as per the AT&C losses.

“Of the country’s 241 cities where AT&C losses are below 10%, Noida happens to be UP’s only city to join this club,” Kumar said.

“In Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada have brought the losses as down as 3.83% and 4.17%, respectively, in Assam’s Silchar they are just 1.19%, and 8.51% in Raipur in Chhatishgarh. Similarly, losses are 4.76% in Vadodara in Gujarat, 7.97 in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh,” he said.

Kumar said barring Noida and Ghaziabad the AT&C losses in all other cities of the state continued to be above the targeted 15% which was increasing the cash gap and making the power sector financially unviable.

UP Vidyut Karmchari Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti convener, Shailendra Dubey claimed political interference and inept approach of the management was responsible for high losses in UP.

“Agra where the Torrent Power Ltd, a private franchisee, supplies electricity the AT&C losses are still not below 15%,” he said demanding the government to withdraw its decision to repeat Agra model in five more cities.

THE LETTER STATED THAT OF THE COUNTRY’S 145 ELECTRICITY DIVISIONS WITH MORE THAN 40% AT&C LOSSES, 51 WERE IN UP ALONE