Curbing aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C) will be the most arduous task for the Yogi Adityanath government. Cutting down line losses is the key to success of `Power for All’ programme launched by the state government which aims to provide 24X7 power to all categories of consumers by the end of 2019.
The losses which are as high as 40 percent in UP include power theft and pilferage. Of the total 75 districts, NOIDA has the unique distinction of only 6.9 percent line lossses. This is almost half the line losses in Gujarat, better known as `Gujarat model’ implemented when Narendra Modi was chief minister of the western state.
On lines of the stringent Gujarat Model, special police stations and vigilance squads would be set up across UP to curb power thefts. Such specialised police stations function at Vadodara, Surat, Sabarmati, Rajkot and Bhavnagar in Gujarat to nab out power thieves and pilferers.
``UP will be an ideal state if the AT&C losses are brought down to 15 percent. Instead of being power deficient, the state will become power surplus as the present rate of power theft is over 5 crore units per day,’’ said Chairman of All India Power Engineers Federation, Shailendra Dube.
Dube said that as per figures of Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on maximum and minimum energy demand and availability, UP has power shortage of 11.6% against the all India average of 2.3 %.
The AIPEF Chairman said that the CEA has set a limit of 15 percent AT&C losses, but losses in UP were much higher. "The high rate of pilferage needs to be brought down drastically to ensure round the clock power supply in the state. As per CEA data, 71 percent and 19 percent of households in rural and urban areas respectively have no power connections. At the same time, over 60 lakh consumers derive power through ‘katiya’ (illegal) connections and are unbilled. The number of various category of electricity consumers in the state is about 1.88 crore. The aim to providing ‘Power For’ by 2019 would require new power connections to 2 crore additional households," he said.
UP Power Corporation limited (UPPCl) sources said that a major portion of additional power demand towards meeting incremental energy demand from households and new power connections to be given under ‘Power For All’ could be met from curbing power thefts and bringing down the total AT&C losses to about 10 percent.
Energy minister Shrikant Sharma has reiterated the government’s resolve to strictly deal with power theft without fear or favour. The UPPCl is gearing up to launch an intensive drive to identify illegal power connections, provide new connections to households, strengthen transmission and distribution network to bring down the line losses. In run up to 2017 UP Assembly poll, `Power for All’ was a flagship promise given by the BJP to voters of the state.
At present, the peak load power demand of UP stands at about 15,000 MW which is projected to hover around 18,000-19,000 MW during May and June. Within two years, when ‘Power For All’ would be fully implemented, the total power demand in UP is expected to be around 22,000 MW.
At the end of March 2016 the accumulated losses of UPPCl had breached Rs 60,000 crore mark and under the central Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), the state government had made budgetary provisions of Rs 40,000 crore to issue bonds to these discoms. It was projected that UDAY would accrue savings of Rs 33,000 crore to the UPPCl and its four subsidiary power distribution companies and enable them to raise fresh capital from banks and financial institutions for future investment.
Power generation by state owned thermal and hydel power stations is about 4,000-4,500 MW. The private sector generation stands at about 5,000 MW, while UP’s share from the Central sector is roughly 6,000 MW, of which UP is getting about 5,000 MW. UPPCl has long term and short term power purchase agreements (PPA) of about 3,000 MW.