A whopping financial assistance of over Rs 9,000 crore is needed to mitigate the problem in power sector of Odisha, which has been plagued due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
While the Government of India imposed lockdown from March 22 to contain spread the pandemic, restriction on multifarious activities severely impacted power sector and ability of all kinds of consumers to pay the electricity bills.
With tight cash flow situation in the power distribution sector, the Odisha Government has approached the Union Ministry of Power to facilitate availing assistance of Rs 3,800 crore as working capital for the distribution companies DISCOMs and Rs 5,375 crore to clear outstanding dues payable towards power procurement. In total Rs 9,175 crore is needed, official sources said.
The Department of Energy (DoE) has reiterated the requirement for assistance to the power sector to manage tight cash flow situation, as due to lockdown there is severe collection shortfall for the DISCOMs and clearing dues payable to generators towards power procurement.
Principal Secretary Energy, Bishnupada Sethi has written to Union Secretary Power Sanjeev Nandan Sahai to finalise the modalities for financial assistance to be provided through the agencies like Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to the State DISCOMs.
Earlier, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy had written to Union Secretary Power proposing few steps to mitigate the problems envisaged in power sector due to an unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic.
It was proposed that the PFC, the REC and other lending institutions should provide loan to power sector at concessional rate to generators, transmission and distribution companies for bridging revenue gaps at concessional rate.
In view of almost standstill activities of industrial, commercial as well as Government and corporate sector offices, power demand of the State has substantially reduced.
Take for example, average power demand of the State was 3,869 MW in April, 2019, which has gone down to 2,682 MW in April, 2020.
During April, 2019, peak demand of power was 5,193 MW, which has recorded 3,620 MW, official sources added.