Stopping power losses: Annual APR of officers on performance in Energy Accounting

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Sept 12: Trying to plug the power losses, Annual Performance Report (APR) of officers and engineers of Power Development Department (PDD) will be now based on their performance in energy accounting system started by government from this fiscal.

Due to failure of the government to stop the power losses, even the Planning Commission of India (PCI) has repeatedly expressed his dismay over the failure to achieve the targets.

As per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) executed with Government of India under Accelerated Power Development Reforms Programme (APDRP), the state government was to bring down T&D losses to 25 percent by December 2006. But contrary to it, the losses gone up from 45 percent in 2005-06 to over 62 percent in 2010-11 due to unsatisfactory implementation of the Centrally sponsored power reform Programmes.

Officials said that PDD has also asked the government to give Rs 65.05 crore for purchasing 3.15 lakh electronic meters for 100 percent metering of the consumers in Jammu region. At the moment out of 6 lakh consumers in Jammu, only 2.85 lakh are fully metered.

The PDD is heavily dependent upon the budgetary support from the state government to provide electricity to  the consumers.

“An analysis of the data revealed that for every unit of energy supplied to the consumers by the department during 2010-11, the state had spent an amount of Rs. 5.77 from its budget”, said a engineer.

The new system envisages tallying of electricity units distributed from a particular feeder during a specified period with revenue collections made at the end of the month. If any mis-match is found in the energy supplied and revenue realized, the concerned officers and field staff will be held responsible for the lapse.

A senior officer from PDD said that most of the power theft can be stopped if field staff and engineers take active part in detecting the power pilferage and taking prompt action. “At times the power theft is being overlooked by the officers and if they are given targets and made responsible for losses, they are likely to perform well”, he said.