Uttar Pradesh: 24×7 power to up to 30% sub-stations on cards

In a virtual meeting with managing directors (MDs) of power companies, state Energy Minister Srikant Sharma discussed ways to supply uninterrupted power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission.

To prevent frequent power cuts in villages, the state Energy Department has decided to provide round the clock electricity to up to 1,300 sub-stations with less than 15 per cent Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) loss.

AT&C loss refers to the difference between power units purchased by distributors and the total billed units to consumers. The reasons for the loss are creaky infrastructure, power theft, inefficient billing or other technical hurdles.

In a virtual meeting with managing directors (MDs) of power companies, state Energy Minister Srikant Sharma discussed ways to supply uninterrupted power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission.

The state has a total of 4,418 sub-stations. According to a statement issued by Sharma, the sub-stations will be classified into Green, Orange and Red categories based on their AT&C loss. Those under 15 percent loss will be in the Green category, those under last year’s Discom average loss in the Orange category and the rest in the third category.

As per sources, only 30 per cent of the total 4,418 substations fall under the Green and Orange categories. Officials, however, claimed that they were working to bring more sub-stations in the top two categories.

On the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Sharma had earlier analysed the work done by all electricity distribution companies and said that if all sub-stations were self-reliant, it would benefit both the employees and consumers.

He expressed confidence that in the coming days, the 4,418 sub-stations would become self-reliant with 24-hour power supply and the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) chairman would continuously analyse the system.

“For the last 15 days, we have been working on this and talking to all our managing directors… We will also take the help of the public, and on priority basis, we will replace the damaged wires in these villages,” said Srikant Sharma to The Indian Express.