Stations to monitor power theft, need of the hour

The Power Ministry has tried to make everything transparent from electricity generation to distribution under the new policy – UDAY 2.0.

Patawari, CEO, National Electrical Equipments Corporation in a discussion with Athira Bejoy discusses how imperative it is to have a station religiously dedicated to monitor power theft to reduce the revenue loss incurred by DISCOMs.

Moving away from power generation and focusing on supply. Your take?
Power generation is growing at a good pace and we should be a power surplus country by the end of this fiscal as per latest reports published. However, peak demand is still a concern with a growth rate of nearly 10GW per year which would be met by surplus by 2022 if not later. The government has been focusing on supply for the last 5 years with focusing more and more energy efficient transformers, net metering and considering other ways to reduce the line losses.

In India, nearly 25 per cent of electricity produced is lost due to dissipation from wires as well as from theft. Theft happens in rural as well as in urban areas. Theft are of two types, one is owing to high line losses which have come down considerably in the last few years, other theft can be further classified as non-metered free usage and meter frauds; due to which revenue lost by power DISCOMs are nearly sixth of electricity they supply. Hence, government has to act fast on supply for the next few years so that money of the tax payers is not lost in revival; instead it is used for the betterment of DISCOMs.

According to PRAAPTI portal, there has been a rise in the outstanding dues to GENCOs by the DISCOMs. Would this move to focus on supply, will bring a any relief to the debts?
Absolutely, as I mentioned earlier, focus on supply is the need of the hour and without focusing on supply side, theft which is causing losses to DISCOMs of humongous proportions just cannot be stopped. Just imagine you produce something at ` 10 and have to sell it at ` 8, knowing that the production cost can be reduced further if no theft ever happened. This supply side focus will definitely but slowly and steadily will bring the DISCOMs out of red. There is a need of reforms of highest level like smart-grid infrastructures, reducing operational inefficiencies etc. which needs quick and efficient actions but will take time.

What policy or tariff changes are you expecting to come under the UDAY 2.0 as it is supposedly aimed at improving operations of the DISCOMs?
Many things need to change like why should consumer only has to bear losses of DISCOMs with a hike in electricity bills; State Government and DISCOMs should also be part of the same. Secondly, there have be provision for giving timely payments to generation companies (may not include state-owned) so that they are also not under the stress of outstanding. It may be in form of Letter of credit or any other way suitable to DISCOMs, so that more private investments can be invited. DISCOMs should be paying interest or penalty to GENCOs if further payment is delayed. Further to reducing line losses, one more thing which we expect is new stations to monitor power thefts.

DISCOMs are facing one of the greatest threats of cyber attack. On the wake of this, how is an efficient supply possible?
Considering the pace at which our national grids are becoming dependent on computers and data sharing which in return provides significant benefits to customers and DISCOMs, it has become more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. More complex our systems are becoming, more sophisticated the hackers are. Hence, to still have an efficient supply, there is a need to be pro-active, put in place of strong authentication mechanisms, vulnerability assessments should be only on regular basis. DISCOMs should also vary of data collection and many other things which can be done to reduce the rate of cyber-attacks threats, which will be there due to everything becoming online.

What kind of infrastructure should be in place for an efficient supply?
Smart grid in itself is a good start, which provides easy integration and reliable services to the consumer. It is self-sufficient and based on digital automation technology. In future, we need these smart grids to manage the grids. These would detect fraud, save energy, manage demands and protect distribution networks. As already mentioned, theft stations should be considered and reforms have to be a regular process not a onetime thing.

How are energy efficient transformers going to aid this distribution?
Power thefts are a big concern in India, as per few reports overloading due to thefts costs dearly to DISCOMs. By using energy efficient transformers in distribution networks, losses shall reduce drastically. Even after minor overloading, the losses shall be less as compared to what currently is with conventional transformers. Ultimately it all boils down to reducing losses and BEE has already put strict guidelines in association with BIS; in future we may see the DISCOMs green with reduced line losses because of highly efficient power and distribution transformers.

Saurabh Patawari, CEO, National Electrical Equipments Corporation