VIJAYAWADA: With an objective to create a robust power sector in the State, the Energy Department has created a roadmap for bringing down the Average Cost of Service (ACS)-Aggregate Revenue Realised (ARR) gap to zero in the next four years. The department is also contemplating a new scheme to modernise transmission and distribution (T&D) system to improve the operational performance of Discoms, besides reducing the aggregate technical and commercial (AT and C) losses to as low as 12 per cent.
According to department officials, the target is to reduce the ACS-ARR gap, which is Rs 1.45 per unit in 2020, by adopting various strategies to spend as less as possible on power procurement. A gap of Rs 1.45 per unit between ACS and ARR translates to Rs 8,120 crore per annum. The ACS - ARR gap has been brought down from Rs 2.26 per unit (Rs 12,325 crore overall) in 2019 to Rs 1.45 per unit this year. “The cost of service reduced by Rs 4,783 crore to Rs 7.75 per unit (Rs 43,328 crore) in 2020 from Rs 8.82 per unit (Rs 48,111 crore) in 2019. Our aim is to bring it down to naught by 2024-25,” the officials said. The department has also set a target of reducing Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses to as low as 12.
“The State has achieved a significant improvement in reducing the AT and C losses to 13.36 per cent in 2019-20 from 16.36 per cent in 2018-19. We have prepared a plan to bring it down further by plugging the lapses in the T&D systems,” the officials explained. With the support of Union Ministry of Power, the State is also planning to create demand-driven infrastructure for faultless supply of electricity.
“As part of this, the department is planning segregation of agriculture feeders, which may allow shifting agriculture load towards green energy and solarise agriculture feeders. The Discoms have already completed 77 new substations and 19,502.57 km-long 33kv, 11kv and LT lines at an expenditure of Rs 524.11 crore,” the officials noted. The power utilities are also focusing on modernising the T&D system. “The government wants to modernise electricity power systems, which are essential to provide the best services to consumers and cost-effective and reliable as well,” Energy Secretary Srikant Nagulapalli said on Sunday.