From roping in religious leaders to appeal to the faithful, to encouraging defaulters and to disconnection of supply, the power discom Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) has been on a drive to reduce its losses. And now it has come up with a new scheme — offer VIP status to rural customers in whose area the feeder line loss is below 15%.
As per the instructions given by state energy minister Srikant Sharma, these consumers will get round-the-clock power supply and complaints will be redressed on priority.
Line losses are of two kinds — technical losses (because of materials) and non-technical losses (power theft, metering inaccuracies, dues default etc). At present, the Noida zone is reporting 19% line loss as a whole, which is even greater than 30% in some areas. The state government has given a target to reduce this to 15%.
PVVNL (Noida zone) chief engineer Virendra Nath Singh said that despite several awareness drives, defaulters had so far given a cold response in clearing their outstanding electricity dues. “Since the rural consumers are enthusiastic in getting VIP status for them, it might prove effective in bringing down the line loss. Some of these areas are also prone to power theft, which is energy delivered to customers that is not measured by the energy meter for the customer. Customers also tamper the meter,” he said.
The scheme could benefit 117,000 of the overall 323,000 consumers linked with PVVNL.
The chief engineer also said that at present Noida has 25,378 defaulters, who are having outstanding individual electricity dues up to ₹50,000. “The total outstanding dues on them are approximately ₹33.74 crore. Our officials have also contacted the village heads and local leaders, to encourage them for clearing their power dues. In November last year, we had also appealed to the clergies of temples and mosques of those areas to inspire the defaulters to clear their dues, so as to ensure uninterrupted power supply. However, despite assurances given by the religious and political leaders concerned, those publicity drives failed to yield any positive output,” he said.
