UPCL efforts paying off in reduction of line losses through technological reforms
UPCL efforts paying off in reduction of line losses through technological reforms
Dehradun , Nov 19
Under the able leadership and continuous efforts of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) has made unprecedented progress in the power distribution sector in the last few years.
The demand for power supply has increased by more than 10 percent in the last few years in the state and to deal with the situation, UPCL has taken important steps to establish a strong power distribution system as well as made efforts to improve operational and business efficiency.
To meet the continuously increasing demand, UPCL has further strengthened the distribution area in the last few years, in which new sub-stations have been constructed and new lines have been established across the state. In the year 2023-24, about 4350 distribution transformers have been installed to maintain electricity balance on all the feeders across the state. Also, smart meters are being installed on 59212 distribution transformers and 2602 feeders to improve energy accounting, which will enhance the digitalization, automation and efficiency of the power system and will also reduce power losses.
Since various schemes of the Government of India such as AMISP and Loss Reduction of RDSS Scheme are currently operational and the main objective of these schemes is to ensure high quality power supply to consumers by reducing power losses, for which standards have also been set by the Government of India under the scheme, in which it is mandatory for all distribution companies to qualify. These include the main standards like financial stability, ACS-ARR gap, AT&C losses etc.
In this sequence, UPCL, under the leadership of the Managing Director Anil Kumar Yadav, has improved its billing and collection efficiency and has brought down the At&C losses by a record 5.8 percent in the last 05 years, which is commendable. It is worth noting that UPCL’s AT&C losses in the year 2019-20 were 20.44 percent, which has been continuously reduced to 14.64 percent in the financial year 2023-24.
Anil Kumar Yadav, Managing Director has informed that reducing the losses is important for improving the financial condition of the Discom and due to reduction in losses, revenue increases, technical advancement, balance in demand-supply and along with this, due to reduction in losses, savings are obtained, due to which electricity can be made available to consumers at cheaper rates. In future also, installation of smart metering system by UPCL, use of technologies like SCADA and RT-UHDAS system etc. will also play an important role in reducing the electricity losses.
The details of the last 05 years’ gross losses by UPCL are as follows:-.The Financial Year’s gross AT&C losses (in percentage) were 20.44 per cent in the year 2019-20, 17.79 per cent in the year 2020-21, 15.75 per cent in the year 2021-22, 15.25 per cent in the year 2022-23 and 14.64 per cent in the year 2023-24.
