Kerala, Tripura and Arunachal join UDAY

Kerala, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh have joined the Centre’s power distribution company debt relief scheme, Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojna. With this, 26 states have joined the scheme.

The government estimates that Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura will gain net benefits of approximately ₹4,178 crore, ₹309 crore and ₹810 crore respectively. Since the state discoms have relatively lower loses, these benefits will accrue from reducing transmission losses and demand side management by the discoms.

Boon to states Speaking at the event, Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy, said, “The scheme encourages state governments to engage in constructive competition so as to achieve the financial and operational turnaround of their power departments and discoms.”

The minister reviewed the presentations made by Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan on their discom operational and financial turnarounds under the scheme.

Transmission losses Commenting on the delay in payments to Coal India and the Damodar Valley Corporation by the Jharkhand discom even after joining UDAY, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power AK Verma, said, “The state has now budgeted ₹2,000 crore for meeting this expenditure.”

Through the reduction in AT&C losses and transmission losses to 11 per cent and 4.40 per cent respectively, Kerala can gain an additional revenue of ₹92 crore.

Arunachal Pradesh can gain an additional revenue of ₹279 by reducing AT&C losses to 10 per cent and transmission losses to 3.50 per cent. Tripura can gain ₹ 554 crore more by reducing AT&C losses to 15 per cent and transmission losses to 4 per cent.

Benefits such as coal swapping, coal rationalisation, correction in coal grade slippage, availability of 100 per cent washed coal would also help the states to further reduce the cost of power.

Kerala is expected to benefit around ₹3,600 crore and Tripura around ₹156 crore due to coal reforms.

Peak load reduction Demand side interventions in UDAY such as usage of energy-efficient LED bulbs, agricultural pumps, fans & air-conditioners and efficient industrial equipment through PAT (Perform, Achieve, Trade) would help in reducing peak load, flatten load curve and thus help in reducing energy consumption in the State.

The gain is expected to be around ₹480 crore, ₹26 crore and ₹96 crore for Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura respectively.