Presentation on ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION LOSSES & CONCEPT OF AGGREGATE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL (AT&C) LOSS

R.V. Shahi Former Power Secretary, Govt. of India Chairman of Energy Infratech Pvt. Ltd.
(November, 2011)

CONTENTS
 Anomalies in T&D Loss Computation  Concept of AT&C Losses  Pre-requisites for obtaining baseline AT&C losses  Methodology for establishing AT&C Losses for Project Area  Sample Calculation for Baseline AT&C Losses

ANOMALIES IN T&D LOSS COMPUTATION



In Indian Power Sector, T&D Losses, as computed in the past, over several decades, never represented the true picture about losses in the system.

Similar is the situation in a number of developing countries.

The

Method

&

Procedures

enable

manipulations

in

computations. The functionaries (Officers & Staff) could present a good picture to reflect their efficiency, while the ground reality could be different.
Contd...
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ANOMALIES IN T&D LOSS COMPUTATION



In absence of feeder metering separating Agriculture & Domestic Consumption, substantial portion of T&D loss, including theft of electricity, gets attributed to agricultural consumption.

Also, T&D loss was being computed taking into account electricity bills issued to consumers as accrued income & not on actual collection.

Contd...

ANOMALIES IN T&D LOSS COMPUTATION



Just by overbilling, one could show a much lower than actual loss. Therefore, T&D loss figures did not capture the major gap between the Billing and the Collection, apart from large amount of theft.

Theft and deliberate manipulations by staff get subsumed in excess Billing (Which would obviously never get collected)

To get over this problem, concept of Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) loss was introduced.
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CONCEPT OF AT&C LOSSES

TECHNICAL LOSSES
 Factors causing Technical Losses:
 Transformation Losses (at various transformation levels)  High I2R losses on distribution lines due to inherent

resistance and poor power factor in the electrical network

 Inadequate Planning & Design, irresponsible overdrawals

by Consumers
 Overloading of existing lines and substation equipments  Absence of upgradation of old lines and equipments  Low HT: LT ratio Contd...
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CONCEPT OF AT&C LOSSES

TECHNICAL LOSSES
 Factors causing Technical Losses:
 Poor repair and maintenance of equipments  Non-installation of sufficient capacitors

 Requirements for calculating Technical Losses:

 33 kV and below HT network Line Diagrams  Line Diagrams for each of distribution transformers and LT

circuits upto poles/feeder pillars

 Voltage levels, Power factor and Current loading on HT/LT

network & network equipments

 Line lengths, cross section & nature of material, network

equipments load curve etc

Contd...

CONCEPT OF AT&C LOSSES

COMMERCIAL LOSSES


Factors causing Commercial Losses:

 Discrepancy in Meter Reading
o Untraceable consumers o Stopped/defective meters o Temporarily disconnected consumers continuing in

billing solution
o Premises found locked

Contd...

CONCEPT OF AT&C LOSSES

COMMERCIAL LOSSES


Factors causing Commercial Losses:

 Metering
o o o o o

Meter tampering Bypassing of meters Usage of magnets to slow down the meters Tampering of PT circuits CT/PT ratios (in case of HT meters)

Contd...

CONCEPT OF AT&C LOSSES

COMMERCIAL LOSSES

 Factors causing Commercial Losses: 

Theft by direct hooking

o Tapping of LT lines to indulge in theft through

direct hooking
o Sometimes even drawing an underground cable

direct from Distribution Transformer

Contd...

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CONCEPT OF AT&C LOSSES

COMMERCIAL LOSSES
 Collection efficiency
 Utility is not being able to collect the complete amount

billed by it.
 Absence of Energy Accounting & Auditing  In case of unavailability of arrear figures, the collection

efficiency figures can be more than 100%.

 Revenue collected shall exclude the arrears.  In above cases efficiency needs to be restricted to 100%

and shall be used for computation of AT&C losses.

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PRE-REQUISITES FOR OBTAINING BASELINE AT&C LOSSES

 Metering of Energy Input Points of Project

Area
 On incoming lines of 33/11 kV sub-stations located within

project area.
 On 33 kV, 11 kV feeders emanating from sub-station

located outside project area but supplying power to HT/LT consumers located within project area.

Contd...

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PRE-REQUISITES FOR OBTAINING BASELINE AT&C LOSSES

 Ring-fencing

of

Project

area

electrical

network
 Import/export meters at the boundary of those lines

that are feeding outside as well as inside project area so that import and export of energy can be measured for project area. These lines may emanate from the sub-stations located within or outside project area.
 Import/export

meters

on

the

dedicated

feeder

emanating from sub-stations located within project area but feeding outside project area.
 Import/export

meters

on

33/11

kV

sub-stations
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LILO/tie lines.
Contd...

PRE-REQUISITES FOR OBTAINING BASELINE AT&C LOSSES

 Segregation of Rural Loads within Project

Area
 For HT (11kV) feeders, providing power to mixed category

of consumers including agricultural (rural), commercial, domestic etc., within project area, utilities may segregate these feeders through installation of separate HT feeder for such loads.

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Contd...

PRE-REQUISITES FOR OBTAINING BASELINE AT&C LOSSES

 Billing & Revenue Collection System
 Billing system is to be able to provide data like sales,

revenue billed and collected for entire project area.

 The current billing system is designed in a way that

sale data can be extracted for 11 kV feeder or for distribution centers (DCs) as whole.
 Utilities

to make provisions to account for sales

happening outside project area.

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Contd...

PRE-REQUISITES FOR OBTAINING BASELINE AT&C LOSSES

 Computation of Input Energy
 To install meters at input points of each of feeders (66

kV, 33 kV, 11 kV etc.) and read them at pre-defined intervals.

 In case of LILO, net input energy to the project area of

the feeder shall be considered.

 If 66 kV or 33 kV feeder is directly feeding to a

dedicated consumer and that consumer(s) is within project area, input of such feeder shall be considered as part of input energy to the project area.
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METHODOLOGY FOR ESTABLISHING AT&C LOSSES FOR PROJECT AREA

 Computation of Sales
 The billing for metered consumers can be done through

energy recorded by meters and the applicable tariff.

 In case of unmetered consumption
 Norms

established (SERC)

by for

respective

state of

regulatory unmetered

commission consumption.

assessment

 In case SERC norms are not defined, a consumption of

150 (Units) kWh for each 1 kW of sanctioned connected load.

 The assessment is allowed only for limited period of time

and the utilities are required to complete 100% metering within 6 months.
Contd...
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METHODOLOGY FOR ESTABLISHING AT&C LOSSES FOR PROJECT AREA

 Computation of Billing Efficiency
Billing Efficiency = Total Units Sold (kWh) Total Input (kWh)

 Computation of Collection Efficiency

Collection Efficiency = Revenue Collected (in Naira) Billed Amount (in Naira)

 Computation of AT&C Losses

AT&C Losses = {1-(Billing Efficiency x Collection Efficiency)}x100
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COMPUTATION OF AT&C LOSSES

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THANK YOU

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