CAG to hold conference on power generation, transmission & distribution trends

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India will organise a day-long national conference on February 23 here to facilitate meaningful discussions on recent developments in the power generation, transmission, and distribution sectors.  The National Conference on Power Sector will be attended by the Secretary, Ministry of Power; Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE); Chairperson, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), and Chairperson, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), along with CMDs of NTPC, NHPC, SECI, PFC, Grid-India, and PGCIL. From the state side, Power Secretaries of various State Governments and CMDs/ MDs of selected power generation, transmission, and Distribution State PSUs will attend the Conference on February 23. CAG K Sanjay Murthy will preside over the conference. “Taking into consideration the landscape of the sector with crucial projects, the role of central and state Governments in planning and regulation, as well as the recent developments in the functions of generation, transmission and distribution of power, the CAG’s institution has planned to organise a one-day All India Conference of Power Secretaries,” the CAG office said.  The CAG has been playing an instrumental role in improving the efficiency of the power sector through its audit reports.

Feedback from the conference will help the CAG in its audit plan for the generation, transmission, and distribution segments of the power sector. The national conference will provide a strategic platform to bring high-level stakeholders to deliberate on strategies for dealing with challenges with a focus on digitalisation, renewable integration and financial sustainability of the power sector, particularly DISCOMs, it said.

The discussion will aim to bring together learnings, good practices and the much-needed discourse to spearhead a new wave of transformation around performance, accountability and service quality, said a background paper on steering India’s power sector towards Viksit Bharat. The Office of CAG has prepared the paper in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Vasudha Foundation. The Indian power sector is the third-largest and one of the most complex electricity systems in the world, the paper said.