(a) whether the Government are going to take up district level distribution reforms;
(b) whether steps are being taken to improve revenue earning capacity of State
Electricity Boards and plugging loopholes in generation and distribution of power; and
(c) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF POWER ( SHRIMATI JAYAWANTI MEHTA )
(a) to (c) : The Government of India has launched a scheme in the year 2000 called
Accelerated Power Development Programme (APDP) with outlays for 2000-01 and
2001-02 of Rs.1000 crores and Rs.1500 crores respectively to provide systematic
financing to projects relating to (a) renovation & modernisation/life extension/uprating of
old generating stations (thermal and hydel) and upgradation of sub-transmission &
distribution network. Through the projects aimed at upgradation of sub-transmission &
distribution, the Government aimed to bring about distribution reform at the district level.
For this purpose, initially 63 distribution circles, have been taken up for upgradation of
the sub-transmission & distribution network. It is proposed to ultimately operate a
distribution circle as a profit centre and a feeder as a business unit. The measures that
would be covered under APDP are metering at all transformation level, decentralized
billing and collections, systematic replacement of LT lines with HT lines, augmenting
transformation capacity, reconductoring, generating data base consumer-wise etc. It is
also proposed to cover all the circles in the country during the 10th Plan (2002-2007). It
is expected that the distribution reform will reduce technical and commercial losses in the
transmission and distribution network and also result in improvement in the quality and
reliability of power supply. The reduction of technical and commercial losses will
improve the revenues of the State Electricity Boards.