Energy audit must, regulatory body tells Punjab power corpn

Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has asked the state power corporation to carry out energy audit of all 47 towns covered under the Centre’s reforms programme.

Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has asked the state power corporation to carry out energy audit of all 47 towns covered under the Centre’s reforms programme.

The main towns of Punjab, including Patiala, Amritsar, Moga, Jalandhar, Tarn Taran, Kharar, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Gidderbaha, Gurdaspur, SAS Nagar, Khanna, Malerkotla, Rampura Phul, Jagraon, Fazilka, Sunam, Zira, Nabha and Nangal, are covered under the union ministry of power’s Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP).

In its tariff order for the current financial year 2015-16, pointing out shortcomings in the functioning of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), the PSERC has said that the PSPCL has failed to implement the directive of the commission to generate and share 11KV feeder-wise energy report by updating consumer indexing.

“The commission (PSERC) directs the PSPCL once again to submit the energy audit report of all ‘go live’ towns within a month of issuance of the tariff order,” says the PSERC order of May 5. ‘Go Live’ in power sector terminology means when energy entering and consumed in a particular town is recorded in real time.

The PSPCL has claimed that all 47 towns of the state covered under the RAPDRP scheme have been made live, which means the bills are available and could be paid online. The PSPCL has asked all its consumers in these towns to get their electricity bill alerts on mobile phones.

With the Centre’s major focus on energy conservation, the PSERC has also asked the PSPCL to implement the project ‘Bachat Lamp Yojana’ by replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. The regulatory commission has already approved the proposal of the PSPCL to replace 16 lakh incandescent bulbs with CFLs or LEDs.

“The PSERC has been repeatedly asking us to carry out energy audit so that the exact amount of power consumed and
power billed could be accessed and the loopholes are plugged and the transmission and distribution losses in a particular area falling in these 47 towns could be assessed,” said a PSPCL officer, adding that the power corporation had to go a long way in reaching to the situation when in individual pockets input and output of power could be monitored online.

The PSPCL in its reply to the PSERC has said that of the 47 towns, 24 have been declared ‘go live’ after conducting the required energy audit as per power finance corporation guidelines and 23 towns are expected to ‘go live’ by June 30, the deadline extended by the Union ministry of power.

The PSERC said 24 towns were declared ‘go live’ by December 2014, but the energy audit report of not even a single town had been shared with the PSERC, despite the directions.