Union Minister Shri Manohar Lal chairs meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Members of Parliament for Ministry of Power
Smart Meters will benefit both consumers and distribution companies by reducing billing errors, enhancing energy efficiency, and providing greater convenience for users : Shri Manohar Lal
The Meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Members of Parliament for the Ministry of Power was held in New Delhi last evening.
Shri Manohar Lal, Union Minister for Power and Housing & Urban Affairs chaired the meeting. Minister of State for Power Shri Shripad Yesso Naik was also present. Members of Parliament of various political parties from Lok Sabha and Rajya took part in the meeting.
The subject of the meeting was "Implementation of Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)”. Shri Shashank Misra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Power gave a presentation on the subject.
During the meeting, Shri Manohar Lal emphasized that the power sector plays a pivotal role in achieving the vision of making India a developed nation by 2047. He highlighted that to meet the growing demand for electricity generation and transmission, additional capacities are being developed. The Union Minister also shared that every village in the country is now electrified, with stable and high-quality power being supplied nationwide.
He pointed out that, over the past decade, power availability in urban areas has improved from 22 hours to 23.4 hours, while in rural areas, it has increased significantly from 12.5 hours to 22 hours. Discussing the implementation of smart meters installations, the Minister stated that these will benefit both consumers and distribution companies by reducing billing errors, enhancing energy efficiency, and providing greater convenience for users.
Furthermore, Shri Manohar Lal said that regular meetings of consultative committees will be convened to foster discussions and continuously improve consumer services.
Shri Shripad Yesso Naik highlighted the significant role of the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) in improving service quality and building consumer trust. He stated that the effective implementation of projects under RDSS would strengthen the financial sustainability of DISCOMs while ensuring the delivery of reliable and high-quality power to consumers. He also underscored the importance of promptly executing the sanctioned projects under the scheme to achieve its objectives.
ABOUT THE SCHEME:
Government of India launched RDSS with an outlay of Rs. 3,03,758Cr. with an estimated Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Rs.97,631 Cr. from the Central Government. The scheme has been formulated with the objective of improving the quality and reliability of supply of power to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient distribution sector. The scheme aims to reduce the AT&C losses and ACS-ARR gap at pan-India level. The scheme has a duration of 5 years i.e. from (FY 2021-22 to FY 2025-26). The release of funds under the scheme have been linked to Results and Reforms. The scheme allows States to adopt customised reform measures and plan infrastructure works so as to meet specific needs of the State. All Distribution Utilities i.e. all Distribution companies (DISCOMs) and State /UT Power Departments, excluding private sector DISCOMs are eligible for financial assistance under this rheme.
The scheme has two parts:
Part A- Financial support for prepaid smart consumer metering g smart/ communicable system metering & upgradation of the distribution infrastructure.
Part B - Training, Capacity Building etc
PROGRESS REVIEW
Till date Forty-four (44) meetings of the Monitoring Committee have been convened, wherein, Smart metering works covering 1,9.79 Cr. consumer meters, System metering works covering 52.53 lakh DT meters and 2.1 lakh Feeder meters have been approved. Further, Loss Reduction works of INR 1.46 lakh Cr. have been sanctioned for 32 States/ UTs covering 52 Distribution utilities
STATUS OF FEEDER SEGREGATION UNDER RDSS:
|
Feasible Feeders (Number)
|
Completed
(Number)
|
Balance to be segregated
(Number)
|
Completed (%)
|
|
80720
|
53475
|
27245
|
66 %
|
ACHIEVEMENTS UNDER RDSS :
- AT&C loss of distribution utilities at the national level has reduced from 22.32% in FY21 to 15.37% in FY23. (FY24 (Prov.): 17.60%)
- ACS-ARR gap has also reduced from Rs. 0.69/kWh in FY21 to Rs. 0.45/kWh in FY23. (FY24 (Prov): Rs 0.21/ kWh)
- Most of the utilities are now timely publishing their annual accounts.
- Most States are now timely paying the subsidy and Govt Dept dues.
- Publishing of tariff and true up orders by utilities are now being streamlined.
- No new regulatory assets are being created
Members of Parliament offered several valuable suggestions regarding various initiatives and schemes. They praised the scheme for providing quality power to consumers and lauded Union Minister Shri Manohar Lal for organizing the second consultative committee meeting. Concluding the meeting, Shri Manohar Lal expressed his gratitude to the participants for their insightful contributions. He also instructed officials to take necessary steps to incorporate the suggestions provided by the Members of Parliament and emphasized the importance of ensuring a stable and high-quality power supply for consumers.
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JN/SK
(Release ID :266209)