UP ready with action plan to reduce line losses

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh will soon submit an action plan to the Centre, explaining how it will reduce aggregate transmission and commercial (AT&C) losses in the power sector over the next four years — a pre-condition by the latter for the transfer of Rs 11,000 crore second loan installment under the Atmanirbhar bailout package for discoms. The central government has made it clear that it will release the balance amount only after UP makes a commitment to bring down the AT&C losses to the level of 15% within next four years and formally summits a detailed action plan to achieve the same. “We are ready with the action plan that has already been approved by the state government. It will be sent to the Centre soon for approval, after which we expect to receive the balance amount of around Rs 11,000 crore,” additional chief secretary, energy and UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman, Arvind Kumar said. With a share of around Rs 21,000 crore in it, UP is the biggest beneficiary of the Rs 90,000-crore bailout package announced by the Centre in July to help the country’s government-owned discoms whose financial position has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic to meet their power purchase liabilities. The government-owned UP Power Corporation Ltd UP got Rs 10,000 crore loan from the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) under the package and it used the amount to clear dues to the power generation and transmission companies that sold/transmitted power to discoms up to March 31. UPPCL, according to sources, has a liability of paying Rs 19,000 crore to private generation companies, apart from around Rs 8,000 crore it owes to the UP Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, a government-owned power generation company. For the release of the second loan amount of the balance Rs 11,000 crore, the Centre, however, put a pre-condition making availability of the balance amount subject to Uttar Pradesh’s commitment reduce the AT&C losses to 15% from the current around 25-30% by 2024. “We have proposed year-wise reduction of losses by promising 100% metering of consumers, installation of smart meters in cities, segregating all the agriculture feeders, curbing pilferages and improving billing efficiencies among other measures,” UPPCL sources said. The financial state of discoms, they pointed out, was quite grim these days because of low revenue collection in the pandemic time. “Discoms badly need the Centre’s second installment under the bailout package,” they said.