#Jaipur: #Bhiwandi One of the first and noted success stories in the power distribution sector might be emulated by Rajasthan, which recently signed up for the Ujwal Discoms Assurance Yojana (UDAY).
Saddled with losses of Rs 80,000 crore, Rajasthan was in discussions with officials and private companies to have an innovative distribution franchise model for improving its operational efficiencies.
Senior officials in the state government said they were looking at several options, most prominent being the Bhiwandi power reform model initiated by Torrent Power in four cities — Bhiwandi (Maharashtra), Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Surat, and Ahmedabad (Gujarat).
“We are in discussions and this model is being actively considered. We are not looking at complete privatisation but we need to bring down our technical and commercial losses. For that, we need to tie up with some experts,” said a senior state government official.
Bhiwandi in Maharashtra had seen a turnaround in the power distribution sector in 2006. The turnaround was orchestrated by Torrent Power in a public-private partnership.
The city had battled high levels of AT&C losses and inefficient power supply until Torrent Power took over the function for 10 years. It brought down losses significantly and turned around the financials as well. The distribution franchise model involved private investment and state’s assistance in implementing reforms. Ahmadabad-based Torrent Power had joined hands with the city’s authorities to improve cabling, metering and bill collection. State support had come in the form of strict enforcement and cracking down on energy theft.
Bhiwandi, which has a customer base of 200,000 in an area spread over 721 sq km, is a major textile hub of and has one-third of the country’s power looms. The estimated demand in the circle was 750 MVA with an annual power consumption of 3,036 million units. The distribution franchise was selected through a two-pronged reverse-bidding. The company agreeing to buy power at the costliest rate and sell at the cheapest while improving efficiency was selected. Power purchase was done by the state which was then sold to the franchise.
The Bhiwandi model was later implement in four cities by Torrent Power.
The Delhi distribution franchise, with Reliance Power and Tata Power, has a joint venture model with the government and all onus of operations is on the private company.
Rajasthan has the highest discom debt among all the states, of Rs 85,000 crore. Last month, it had signed a tri-partite agreement with the power ministry and its three discoms under UDAY
Bureau Report
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