Narrowing gap  creates hope of  one nation, one power rate

New Delhi: The narrowing gap in power purchase rate between one state and another has created hope of achieving the goal of one nation one rate goal in next two or three years. It has , however, a rider: there is no slippage and the current trend is maintained.

Power distribution companies in different states were made available energy at rates which ranged between Rs 2.40 and Rs 3.25 per unit during last two days. The country's average worked out to be Rs 2.61 per unit. The gap was much bigger the previous year.

Uttar Pradesh, for instance, was sold power at the rate of Rs 3.25 per unit on Thursday and Rs 3.02 the previous day. The neighbouring state of Bihar purchased power at the same rate of Rs 3.25 on June 8 from the exchange in the energy sector.

A change in the scenario was noticed early this fiscal which has gone unabated. At this rate of growth the gap will be completely filled in next two or three years and one rate will be prevalent throughout the country.

Consumers have not benefited from this change so far but they will if the trend continues for sometime. It is likely to happen because the exchange rates will be notified each day and consumers will be made aware through internet. They will not be kept in the dark,

One positive is ,however, already in evidence. The availability has already improved, narrowing the gap between the demand and supply. It used to be as wide as 14,000 a few years ago. In May last the gap was reduced to 2000 megawatts.

This will reduce the debt burden on the distribution companies considerably. They are already breathing easy due to the UDAY scheme launched two years ago.

Almost all the states have derived benefit from the scheme by signing agreement with the Centre. The states which have entered agreement ( their number was 26 at the end of March last) have taken 75 per cent of debt burden of distribution companies which had run into lakhs of crores of rupees, Their debts have been restructured and easy finances made available.

Manipur, Tripura and Kerala made the entry as late as March last. Others including the backward state of Bihar had approached the finance ministry much earlier and issued bonds after clearance by the ministry. It is hoped that by the end of 2019 all the DISCOMs will be either debt free or will have small outstanding.

In view of all this and additional measures taken to improve the situation aggregate technical and commercial losses have come down and availability increased. The technical losses , however, have not yet reached the desired level and much more has to be done.

Against the global average of 8.6 per cent ( three to four per cent in some countries) the country's average in case of technical losses is more than 22 per cent.

It will require time but all the lost ground can be regained. What is required most is a will.