Overview of electrical load situation in India

• In developed countries such as USA, Japan,
UK, the electricity load is very high ~13000
KWh/capita per annum
• Load is expected to decrease or stagnate due
to saturation in market and energy efficiency
• Thus, the challenge is to tackle decreasing
load
• Electricity consumption per capita in India was
1150 KWh/capita in 2018 and expected to reach
4500 KWh/capita by 2030
• This quadruple increase will occur for 1.25 billion
people thus, the number of consumers (or
households to be precise) affected by this
increasing load will be very high in India

Indian Discoms will face challenges in managing unprecedented number of consumers. Most of
these consumers will be from rural areas where loads will be as small as mobile chargers, LED
bulbs or as big as communication towers, agricultural pump-sets etc.
Current status of management by power Discoms
Inefficiency and incompetence are rampant among the Indian Discoms

Unscheduled No penalty Average collection Administrative APDRP scheme

power cuts with framework for efficiency at national tasks and targeted below 15%
national average majority of utilities level is well below connection average AT&C
of 5 Hrs/month to reprimand them 90% - indicating management tasks losses in 2005 and
at 11KV level. in case of power underlying losses in are still based on it is yet to be
Feeder level quality issues or the power distribution manual operations achieved, even
power outages unscheduled systems which are after 13 years.
are not recorded interruptions yet to be controlled

In spite of the Discoms’ lack of capacity, the GoI has launched several power sector schemes
under which Discoms play a central role. Rather than solving problems, these schemes create
more questions – Cost-effectiveness, ROI, alignment with other schemes, sustainability etc.
Strategies for management of future load challenges
Reduction of power purchase cost
1 PPA cost should be optimized by discovery of lowest price
per unit of electricity through market based platforms on
all India basis. This will render long-term PPAs and daily
MOD useless
Deployment of smart grid solutions for
3 higher resilience
Utility should focus on enhancing its capability by adopting
smart grid solutions which will enable real-time monitoring
of distribution network.

Assumption of Distribution System Re-structuring of debts

2 Operator (DSO) role
4 It will help in ensuring enough working capital for utilities.
Power Discoms should be divided into DSO and many Also, state government should be made to overtake utility
energy retailers which will assume the responsibilities such debts because power subsidy are the main reason behind
as new connection management, existing connection these debts.
management, meter disconnect/ reconnect, bill generation.

Promotion of decentralized generation

5 Rooftop solar should be promoted through net metering
and cost subsidies which will help in reducing load and
deferring investments in infrastructure.

Key steps in management of future challenging load situations are preparation of strategy
document, business process change management roadmap, training and capacity building of
utility personnel