The Centre has asked Uttar Pradesh and other states to take steps to provide 24X7 power supply to domestic and other consumers as feeder separation work gets complete in states, officials aware of the development said.
In Uttar Pradesh, 50% of agriculture feeders are said to have been segregated from domestic feeders, making it possible for discoms to supply only eight hours of reliable power for irrigation purpose to tube wells daily while at the same time increasing supply hours for other consumers.
Union power minister RK Singh issued directions to states in this regard in a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“The minister told states to increase supply hours for other consumers on feeders that had been separated from the agriculture feeders that needed only eight hours of power supply for agriculture work,” an official who was privy to the meeting said.
Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) chairman M Devraj was among the other senior energy department officials who attended the meeting.
“The minister said we would soon visit U.P. to separately review work,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}“The minister said we would soon visit U.P. to separately review work,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}The U.P. officials also gave a presentation on the discoms’ performance, including the work done by them under the Centre’s Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) that aims to make discoms financially viable by reducing their technical and commercial losses to 12-15% by 2024-25 to make it possible for them to provide 24x7 power to people.
“The presentation showed loss reduction in Meerut and Agra discoms, but overall average losses were found to be higher than many other states. The minister laid emphasis on the need for U.P. to improve its performance without which India’s performance cannot improve,” the official said.
The minister, however, praised U.P. for fast creation of infrastructure under the RDSS despite being a big state. He told officials to ensure early award of smart prepaid metering tenders too. The officials told him that while the Meerut discom had already awarded the tender, other discoms had invited bids and would finalise tenders very soon. Smart metering is the main component of RDSS.
The energy department officials said at the meeting that the state government had paid the required and committed subsidy to the discoms.
“They also informed the minister that the new power tariff would come into effect in the state after civic polls were over,” the official said.