Question : ADITYA

(a) whether the States are losing about one third of power supplied to their consumers as distribution losses;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(c) whether this has adversely affected not only the consumers but also the power generators and if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government proposes to launch Atal Distribution System Improvement Yojana (ADITYA)to reduce India’s average Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses (AT&C) from 21.4 per cent to12 per cent and if so, the details thereof;

(e) the details of funds sanctioned and released for the said yojana; and

(f) the other steps taken/being taken by the Government to minimize the distribution losses?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER, NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY AND THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

( SHRI R.K. SINGH)

(a) & (b) : As per the provisional data of 2018-19 made available by States/Union Territories (except three States and four Union Territories from which the data has not been received), the States were able to bill for only 84.27 percent of the power supplied. The losses in terms of units not billed comes to 15.73 percent. The reasons for these losses include technical losses; faulty meters; wrong-billing; and, pilferage, etc.

(c) : High aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of distribution utilities beyond the permissible limits by regulators leads to financial losses of DISCOMs. This has an adverse impact upon the power sector value chain, including that on generation companies.

(d) : In the Budget speech of year 2020-21, Government have informed parliament that it would take measures to reform DISCOMs, and also that the Ministry of Power intends to promote smart metering.

(e) : The scheme regarding the above has not been approved as yet, so does not arise.

(f) : Electricity is a concurrent subject and distribution of electricity falls under the purview of the respective State Government / State Power Utility. It is the responsibility of distribution licensees to take necessary steps for reducing the AT&C losses in their system. However, Government of India is assisting states/ utilities to achieve this objective by launching various schemes, which include Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), to enable States to improve their Distribution infrastructure and systems so that AT&C losses are reduced. Under IPDS/DDUGJY, technical loss reduction measures such as creation /augmentation of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure; metering of distribution transformers/feeders/ consumers; underground (UG) cabling; aerial bunched (AB) cables; and, IT enablement of distribution infrastructure have been envisaged.

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