Leveraging Renewable Energy for Reducing Cost of Power Must: Shripad Yesso Naik
Union Minister of State for Power, and New and Renewable Energy, Shripad Yesso Naik, emphasised the need to leverage renewable energy to reduce power costs while addressing key challenges in the distribution sector at the 2nd meeting of the Group of Ministers in Mumbai.
February 28, 2025. By Mrinmoy Dey
Addressing the 2nd meeting of Group of Ministers held in Mumbai, Naik highlighted about 4 key parameters and their relevance to improving viability of distribution utilities viz. Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) Loss, Gap between Average Cost of Supply and Average Revenue Realised (ACS-ARR Gap), Accumulated Losses and Outstanding debts.
He further highlighted about various short, medium and long term strategies to supplement the efforts towards viability of power distribution sector. He expressed that every one percent increase of AT&C loss results in monetary losses for utilities in upwards of INR 10,000 crore.
He mentioned about the use of advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence for demand forecasting and power purchase optimisation, establishing mechanism for timely payment of government dues, sharing best practices amongst DISCOMs, development of renewable energy, energy storage and expediting works under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), as the key interventions.
Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, also holding the portfolio of Energy Ministry in the state commended that the measures taken by the Government of India will have far reaching impact on making country’s distribution sector stronger and healthier.
He highlighted about the energy distribution across different consumer categories in the State. He emphasised on the need for expeditious growth of renewable sources of energy couple with energy storage solutions so as to meet the future challenges of energy transition and growing power demand.
Fadnavis highlighted the efforts made by the State towards RE deployment under Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojana facilitating day time power supply to farmers thereby reducing cost of power and reducing subsidy burden of the State. He mentioned that the State is expeditiously working towards solarisation of all the agricultural load feeders.
He requested support of Government of India (GoI) for early release of Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) under RDSS, reintroduction of schemes like UDAY (Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana), lowering interest rates on loans charged by REC Ltd. and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Ltd., and waiver or reduction in their prepayment charges. He urged for having regulatory relaxations for allowing surplus of DISCOMs towards infrastructure development and reducing debt burden before passing it on further.
The meeting was attended by Thiru V. Senthil Balaji, Minister of Electricity, Tamil Nadu, Dr. Somendra Tomar, Minister of State for Energy, Uttar Pradesh, and Meghana Sakore Bordikar, Minister of State for Energy, Maharashtra. Gottipati Ravikumar, Minister of Energy, Andhra Pradesh and Heeralal Nagar, Minister of State for Energy, Rajasthan attended the meeting through video-conference. The meeting was also attended by officials from Central Government, State Governments and Power Utilities of member States, Power Finance Corporation (PFC) Ltd and REC Ltd.
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