New power programme likely soon

AT&C losses hurt revenue of states like J&K, Bihar, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Manipur etc to as much as above 60%.

The Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP), India's only programme to check power transmission and distribution losses which lapsed in March 2007, is likely to take off in a new avatar within a few weeks.

The Planning Commission recently gave its approval in principle to the "new APDRP", which would incur a cost of Rs 51,000 crore and is expected to bring down aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C, a wider measure of transmission and distribution losses) to around 20 per cent in project areas.

"We are hopeful of implementing this scheme before March 31," said a senior power ministry official. 
 

ACCELERATED POWER SCHEME
	APDRP-Phase 1	New APDRP
Funds (includes loans  & grants)	Disbursed  Rs 7,300 crore (Loans, convertible  to grants)	Earmarked  Rs 51,000 crore
AT&C loss target	Proportional  to existing loss	15 per cent
Disbursement	Upfront	Disbursements based on performance/results

With a national average of 35 per cent, AT&C losses are considered the bane of the power sector as they result in huge revenue losses to state electricity boards. Some states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir have AT&C losses of above 60 per cent.

The APDRP was launched at the beginning of the Tenth Plan. Due to poor results, the government decided to launch a restructured APDRP in April 2007, the beginning of the Eleventh Plan.

However, the new scheme has been in limbo for over nine months due to lack of agreement on certain issues between the power ministry, the Planning Commission and the finance ministry.

According to the power ministry official, the finance ministry's go-ahead is expected within a few days, after which the scheme will go to the Cabinet. The power ministry has allocated Rs 300-400 crore for the scheme in the current year.

Despite an outlay of thousands of crores, the original APDRP could bring down the AT&C losses by only 1-2 per cent to about 35 per cent.

The focus of the new APDRP would be on demonstrable performance. Unlike the first APDRP, where grants were given upfront to states, the new system would focus on setting up of reliable and automated systems for sustained collection of accurate baseline data and adoption of information technology for energy accounting.

"We are creating a system where power utilities will be accountable for every unit of power they feed into the system. This will help them know the exact amount of technical losses," said a power ministry official.

The power utilities will get a certain amount of loan under the scheme, which will be converted into a grant if they can bring down the T&D losses to 15 per cent.