BHUBANESWAR:The Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) has improved its revenue collection by nearly seven per cent in 2017-18.
The distribution utility which is still struggling to cope with high distribution loss has collected Rs 2,974.58 crore in 2017-18 which is Rs 192.11 crore more than the previous year. “The company has registered growth in revenue income despite fall in HT (high transmission) and EHT (extra-high transmission) consumers. Collection from LT (low transmission) consumers overshadow such criticality,” said CEO of CESU Md Sadique Alam.
As the power consumption scenario has changed in the domestic and commercial sectors, this year’s focus for collection was on the LT category consumers. The distribution company collected Rs 1,587.98 crore which is Rs 113.98 crore more than the previous fiscal.With a consumer base of over 22.29 lakh spreading over nine districts, CESU has improved collection efficiency by switching over to digital platform.
Apart from strengthening distribution network, the discom has taken several measures in the field of digital payment, computerised grievances redressal system and online power management system for the benefit of customers, said CESU spokesperson Golak Sahu.
The distribution loss of the company is still high at 31.57 per cent while the aggregated technical and commercial loss (AT&C) loss is 32.53 per cent. One per cent loss reduction will contribute Rs 80 crore to the revenue of the company.
The discom has proposed to reduce the AT&C loss to 29.5 per cent during the current fiscal as gainst the approved benchmark of 23 per cent of the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).
The company has improved its revenue collection efficiency from 96.5 per cent in 2016-17 to 98.6 per cent in 2017-18. It has also set a target to achieve 100 per cent revenue collection in the current fiscal.