Odisha has got the recognition as one of top five States in power system availability and reduction in system loss because of the innovative reform measures undertaken over last several years.
This was known from a review of the activities OPTCl and GRIDCO taken by Chief Secretary AP Padhi, who visited the offices of the two State PSUs and reviewed their activities at two separate meetings. Energy Secretary Hemant Sharma, who is also Chairman of GRIDCO and CMD of OPTCl, outlined the issues for discussions.
An official release said that because of a series of internal restructuring and reforms in the OPTCl during last four years, the live system availability and supply of quality power to consumers has significantly increased up to 99.98 %. The transmission system loss has also been reduced by 26 points.
Sharma appraised that the commercial loss has been reduced from 39% to 36% during the last year. The aggregate technical and commercial (AT &C) loss has been reduced by around 4% during the last year. Notably, a 1%-reduction in AT & C loss saves about Rs 80 crore in the power sector. As such, the reform and restructuring measures in the power generation, transmission and distribution sectors as implemented through these two corporations have resulted in saving of nearly Rs 320 crore by now, the official release said.
The GRIDCO has achieved power surplus with a total availability of 5,709 MW of power from hydro, thermal and renewable sources against the average demand of 3,200 MW. The availability of power has exceeded the general demand of power which is likely to create additional financial burden on GRIDCO in coming years. The Chief Secretary advised the GRIDCO to increase its trading capacity through direct long-term tie-ups with potential bulk buyers through a special tariff.
It was decided to adopt measures like surrender of high cost power, swap high-cost loans, achieve distribution system improvement by standardising all processes, introduction of franchise for better operation and participation in spot market through power exchanges and power banking arrangement.
With regard to power transmission, it was seen that the OPTCl has augmented its infrastructure over the years. Presently, around 134 grids with 13,177 km of transmission line are in operation. This year, a target has been set to charge new 18 grid stations.
The progresses of the OPTCl projects for the Business Plan Period from 2015-16 to 2018-19 were reviewed. A total of 80 projects have been planned for the period. As of now, 63 projects have been grounded out of which 25 have been completed.
Secretary Sharma mentioned that the load forecast for the 13th Plan period (2017-18 to 2021-22) is around 29,209 million units. The OPTCl decided to augment its infrastructure by adding 57 new sub-stations of different capacities during the period.