Hyderabad: After joining in the Centre’s Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, the TS and AP power utilities have benefited by way of lower cost of power purchase and reduction of transmission and distribution losses.
According to a report of the Union ministry of new and renewable energy, the gap has reduced from 59 paisa per unit overall in financial year 2016 to 45 paisa in 2017. In TS, it worked out to a benefit of 41 paisa per unit and in AP 38 paisa.
According to the report, power utilities in TS used to purchase power at Rs 5.07 per unit in 2016 which came down to Rs 4.70 per unit this year. In AP, the cost of power purchase went down from Rs 4.70 per unit in 2016 to Rs 4.32 per unit in 2017.
Despite the gains, the two Telugu states stood behind Manipur, Jharkhand, Haryana, Goa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. Goa topped by getting a benefit of 49 paisa per unit.
The reduction in Aggregate Revenue Requirement gap is the combined effect of average of the cost of interest on loans and power purchase, tariff rationalisation, better billing and collection among others.
The report said as of September 30 last year, the total debt of all state-owned discoms was Rs 3.95 lakh crore. Twenty-six states and a Union Territory had joined Uday with a total outstanding debt of Rs 3.82 lakh crore.
