Vidarbha’s power consumers -- domestic, industrial or commercial -- pay for their energy supplies through the nose on several counts, one of the prominent being heavy transmission and commercial losses at almost all the places. No matter the fact that Vidarbha is Maharashtra’s powerhouse, its consumers keep paying heavier tariffs because the State-owned power entities keep losing massive percentages of electricity during transmission. There were times when even a general loss up to 30 per cent during transmission was considered totally unacceptable. Today, the State and Vidarbha region have literally thousands of places where Aggregate Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses rise shockingly (and yet generally) well above 50 per cent. The region’s power consumers, thus, are the direct victims of this inefficiency.

 

There may have been some cosmetic lip-service to reducing this slippage, but on practical grounds the State-owned power generation and distribution entities make the consumers suffer, bleed! The compilation of town-wise AT&C losses for the financial year 2023-24 for Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) makes some shocking revelations. Purna town in Parbhani district tops the list of towns with the highest AT&C loss in the State -- 71.87 per cent!!! It is closely followed by Nilanga town in Latur district with 71.86 per cent AT&C loss. A cursory look at the data brings out that Ahmadpur town in Latur district has the highest distribution losses (tagged as baseline loss) at 66.96 per cent! The AT&C losses for Ahmadpur are pegged at 50.09 per cent, the billing efficiency is just 56.79 per cent but collection is 87.89 per cent. Chikhli town in Buldhana district also has the highest AT&C losses at 62.07 per cent, with billing efficiency 44.62 per cent only and collection 85 per cent. The higher the AT&C losses, the higher the power pilferage, it is said.

 

Out of 128 towns in the MSEDCL chart, 13 towns have baseline losses above 50 per cent. As to AT&C losses, 10 towns go beyond 50 per cent mark. Only Greater Mumbai and Lonavala have 100 per cent collection efficiency as against billing efficiency of 95.91 per cent and 30.62 per cent respectively. The AT&C losses in MSEDCL jurisdiction are the lowest 0.13 per cent in Vasai, followed by 2.55 per cent in Washim. Nagpur, too, has AT&C losses at 3.46 per cent only. The data compiled by MSEDCL also lists the billing and collection efficiency and Nagpur’s score in this regard is 98.84 and 93.31 per cent respectively. Despite being disciplined, paying bills regularly, and low power theft, towns in Vidarbha are not getting any benefit for this sterling performance. The AT&C losses along with billing and collection efficiency indicate power pilferage, technical issues leading to distribution losses, and recovery of bills.

 

The data also underlines the need for MSEDCL to effect drastic improvement in distribution efficiency as the same has an effect on the outcome of final electricity tariff. Despite advances in technology, MSEDCL continues to bleed due to poor supervision as reflected in quite high commercial losses on account of power theft and default on payment of bills. Thus, despite being the powerhouse of power generation, Vidarbha is getting hammered on double count. Being the hub of thermal power generation in Maharashtra, it is bearing the brunt of pollution and also facing high power tariff due to consequences of high AT&C losses. MSEDCL seems to be aloof to effective adoption of technology as can be seen from AT&C losses above 50 per cent in over a dozen towns in the State. The situation also makes ordinary citizens wonder if the discom is using losses to square-up its accounts in order to justify its stance to tax the consumers with high tariff. Else, there appears to be no logical and moral explanation for the failure of so-called efforts to curb the power thefts and trim transmission losses.

 

Industrially backward Vidarbha region with power generation accounting for three-fourth of MahaGenco’s thermal power capacity, has lower AT&C losses as compared to other well-off regions of Maharashtra. Nagpur in particular, and Vidarbha in general, is dished out a raw deal by MSEDCL, with no special tariff to account for the gross inequality. Perhaps, political interference or pressure on MSEDCL is putting spokes in trimming the AT&C losses as technological advances can put brakes on commercial losses at least. The need is for a stricter approach to recovery of dues. Mere floating of amnesty schemes will not work as those defaulting on payment of bills do so deliberately. This is not to deny that there may be some cases in which default could be due to genuine reasons. If there are genuine reasons for default in most of the cases, then it also calls for further examination of the situation. If the defaults with genuine reasons are less in number, then most are defaulting deliberately, which calls for examination of reasons behind lack of effective action. Whatever might be the case, the AT&C losses spell a story of inefficiency. Should the power consumers in different categories suffer because of this? Well, at least consumers in power-generating region of Vidarbha deserve something better. (To be continued)