Lok Sabha Question No. 3056 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-12
Subject: ADITYA
Ministry: POWER
Asked by: Sanjay Sadashivrao Mandlik, Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, Bidyut Baran Mahato, Sudheer Gupta, Shrirang Appa Barne

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF POWER

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3056 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12.03.2020

## ADITYA

3056. SHRI SANJAY SADASHIV RAO MANDLIK:

SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR:

SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO:

SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA:

SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE:

Will the Minister of POWER be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  States  are  losing  about  one  third  of  power  supplied  to  their consumers as distribution losses;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether this  has  adversely  affected  not  only  the  consumers  but  also  the power generators and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  launch  Atal  Distribution  System Improvement Yojana (ADITYA)to reduce India's average Aggregate Technical and Commercial losses (AT&C) from 21.4 per cent to12 per cent and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) the details of funds sanctioned and released for the said yojana; and
- (f) the  other  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  minimize  the distribution losses?

## A N S W E R

THE  MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  FOR  POWER,  NEW  & RENEWABLE ENERGY AND THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

( SHRI  R.K. SINGH)

- (a) & (b) : As per the provisional data of 2018-19 made available by States/Union Territories (except three States and four Union Territories from which the data has not been received), the States were able to bill for only 84.27 percent of the power supplied.  The losses in terms of units not billed comes to 15.73 percent. The  reasons  for  these  losses  include  technical  losses;  faulty  meters;  wrongbilling; and, pilferage, etc.

(c) : High aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of distribution utilities beyond the permissible limits by regulators leads to financial losses  of  DISCOMs.  This  has  an  adverse  impact  upon  the  power  sector  value chain, including that on generation companies.

(d) : In  the  Budget  speech  of  year  2020-21,  Government  have  informed parliament  that  it  would  take  measures  to  reform  DISCOMs,  and  also  that  the Ministry of Power intends to promote smart metering.

(e)  : The scheme regarding the above has not been approved as yet, so does not arise.

(f) : Electricity is a concurrent subject and distribution of electricity falls under the purview of the respective State Government / State Power Utility. It is the responsibility of distribution licensees to take necessary steps for reducing the  AT&C  losses  in  their  system.  However,  Government  of  India  is  assisting states/  utilities  to  achieve  this  objective  by  launching  various  schemes,  which include  Integrated  Power  Development  Scheme  (IPDS),  Deen  Dayal  Upadhyaya Gram  Jyoti  Yojana  (DDUGJY)  and  Ujwal  Discom  Assurance  Yojana  (UDAY),  to enable  States  to  improve  their  Distribution  infrastructure  and  systems  so  that AT&C  losses are reduced. Under IPDS/DDUGJY, technical loss reduction measures  such  as  creation  /augmentation  of  sub-transmission  &  distribution infrastructure; metering of distribution transformers/feeders/ consumers; underground  (UG)  cabling;  aerial  bunched  (AB)  cables;  and,  IT  enablement  of distribution infrastructure have been envisaged.

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