Report of Indian Institute of Public Administration ... - Ministry of Power

Synopsis of State Reports (Vol.-IV)
Study on `Impact of Restructuring of SEBs’
ckt km and 1,47,466 DTs. The network of lower voltage lines continues to be
the backbone of the distribution system even today.
2.4.1 Operational Parameters
Reliability and Quality of Power
Both the DISCOMs shed around 25 to 30 MUs on a daily basis due to power
shortage in the Northern Grid and to maintain grid discipline. Besides the
planned load shedding, the duration of unscheduled load shedding remained 30
minutes to 1½ hrs for three or four times a day in 2005-06 across all categories
of consumers. The number of interruptions has shown a marked increase since
2001-02 for both the DISCOMs. The annual interruption level per line has
decreased for DHBVNL, from 75 in 2000-01 to 57 in 2004-05, but the average
duration of interruption hrs/line have almost doubled. This is a negative trend.
Failure rate of DTs continues to be high after some good results in the
reduction of failure rate from 33 per cent in 1997-98 to 15.68 per cent in 2002-
03. However, there was a reversal in trend in 2003-04 when the DT failure rate
increased to 16.15 per cent and further to 16.3 per cent in 2004-05.
Losses in the Distribution System
The losses in the distribution system have shown an increasing trend in the
post-restructuring period. AT&C losses of the DISCOMs in 2004-05 have been
as high as 38.26 per cent and 42.59 per cent respectively for DHBVNL and
UHBVNL, because of poor collection efficiency. In 2004-05, the quantum of
losses suffered on account of AT&C losses, was around Rs 821 crore for
DHBVNL and Rs 668 crore for UHBVNL.
2.4.2 Subsidy Support by the State Government
The State Government has been providing subsidy to bridge the revenue gap in
the annual revenue requirement of the DISCOMs on account of concessional
tariff being provided for the agricultural sector in the State. Agricultural
consumption contributes around 33 per cent of the total sales of the DISCOMs
and out of that only 30 per cent was metered as in 2005-06. There exists a
difference in the estimates of DISCOMs and HERC on the consumption in
respect of agricultural pumpsets in the State. For the sales to metered and
unmetered agricultural pumpset consumers, HERC had worked out a criterion
in its tariff order of 2000-01. Subsidy by the State Government is available
only for the agricultural consumers. The past years have seen a progressive
18