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State Governments must promote Rooftop Solar Schemes: Khattar

Published: Jan 20, 2025

By TIOLCorplaws News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 20, 2025: THE Meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Members of Parliament for the Ministry of Power was held in New Delhi on 16th Jan 2025 under the chairmanship of Manohar Lal, Union Minister of Power and Housing & Urban Affairs, to discuss the "Implementation of Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS)". Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy was also present during the meeting. The meeting was attended by the Members of the Consultative Committee for Ministry of Power, Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary (Power) and other officers of the Ministry of Power, Chairperson CEA and CMDs of REC Ltd and Power Finance Corporation Ltd.

Union Minister emphasized on the pivotal role power sector plays in industrial growth and economic development in the country. He highlighted the necessity to add additional generation and transmission capacities for meeting the ever-growing demand in the country. The union minister also shared that every census village in the country is now electrified, and the aim is now to enhance the quality of services being offered to promote the ease of living for consumers.

He pointed out that, over the past decade, power availability in the urban areas has improved from 22 hours to 23.4 hours, while in rural areas, it has increased significantly from 12.5 hours to 22.4 hours. Discussing the implementation of smart meters installations, the Minister stated that smart meters benefit both consumer and distribution companies by reducing billing errors, enhancing energy efficiency, and providing greater convenience for users and help DISCOMs in reducing losses, optimisation of power purchase cost, integration of renewable energy, etc.

The union minister also informed that the Ministry of Power, in coordination with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, has undertaken several measures to alleviate the difficulties consumers faced while installing RTS systems under PM Surya Ghar. These measures include waiving the requirement for Technical Feasibility Study for connections up to 10 kW, implementing deemed load enhancement for RTS installations up to 10 kW, etc. In view of these measures taken by the Union Government, he called upon the State Governments to take initiatives to promote Rooftop Solar Schemes for the benefit of consumers.

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 the consumers. He also underscored the importance of promptly executing the sanctioned projects under the scheme to achieve its objectives.

The Members of the Consultative Committee for Ministry of Power offered several valuable suggestions regarding various initiatives and schemes. They praised the scheme and especially the role of smart meters in improving the services and reducing the losses. They also praised the role of scheme in providing quality power to consumers through execution of distribution infrastructure works. Further, the members lauded Union Minister Manohar Lal for organizing the Consultative Committee meeting. The Union Minister instructed officials to take necessary steps to incorporate the suggestions provided by the Members of the Consultative Committee and emphasized the importance of ensuring a stable and high-quality power supply for consumers.

ABOUT RDSS

Government of India launched Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) with an outlay of Rs. 3,03,758 Cr. 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 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 the specific needs of the States. 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 Scheme. The scheme consists of 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-five (45) meetings of the Monitoring Committee (MC) have been convened. Smart metering works covering 19.79 Cr. Smart Consumer meters, System metering works covering 52.53 lakh Distribution Transformer (DT) meters and 2.1 lakh Feeder meters have been approved. Further, Loss Reduction works worth Rs. 1.48 lakh Cr. have been sanctioned for 32 States/ UTs.

So far, works worth Rs 1.12 lakh Cr have been awarded which are under different stages of implementation. Further, the Smart meter works have also picked up pace. Till date about 11.5 Cr Smart Consumer meters, 45 lakh DT meters and 1.70 lakh Feeder meters have been awarded and are under installation. The presentation also highlighted the positive impact and turnaround created by Smart meters for the utilities of Assam and Bihar. As per analysis, about 44% of the consumers in Assam saved around 50 units per month post installation of smart meters through tracking of consumption and accurate billing. It has also helped the Distribution companies of Assam and Bihar to reduce losses, the benefits of which would ultimately pass to the consumers.

The roll out strategy for smart prepaid meters was also presented. It was mentioned that the installation of smart prepaid meters should be initiated with the Government establishments and then the Commercial and Industrial category consumers and the high load consumers. Based on demonstration of benefits for these categories of consumers, the smart prepaid meters to be installed for other category of consumers. Further, consumers shifting to smart prepaid meters to be offered rebate in bills.

STATUS OF FEEDER SEGREGATION UNDER RDSS

Feasible Feeders Nos.

Completed Nos.

Balance to be segregated Nos.

Completed (%)

80,720

53,475

27,245

66 %

ACHIEVEMENTS UNDER RDSS

i. AT&C loss of distribution utilities at the national level has reduced from 22.32% in FY21 to 15.37% in FY23.

ii. ACS-ARR gap has also reduced from Rs. 0.69/kWh in FY21 to Rs. 0.45/kWh in FY23 which have substantially reduced further in FY24.

iii. Most of the utilities are now timely publishing their annual accounts.

iv. Most States are now timely paying the subsidy and Govt Department dues.

v. Publishing of tariff and true up orders by utilities have been streamlined to a large extent.

vi. No new regulatory assets are being created for the distribution companies.

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