All four state government-owned distribution companies in Gujarat have earned the highest “A+” rating, and have all featured in the list of top 10 discoms in India, as per the “11th Annual Integrated Rating & Ranking of Power Utilities”.
The Union power ministry’s integrated rating and ranking report, for which Power Finance Corporation is the nodal agency, was released on April 10, 2023.
All the four Gujarat state discoms — Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (UGVCL), Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (MGVCL), Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (PGVCL), and Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (DGVCL) – have earned the highest integrated rating of “A+”. These discoms ranked second, third, fifth, and sixth, respectively, in the overall rank table.
Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (AEML) ranked first with an overall score of 99.6 (out of 100). In the preceding (10th) rating report, AEML was ranked sixth while Gujarat utility DGVCL had earned the top rank.
The report covered 71 power distribution utilities that included 45 state discoms, 14 private discoms and 12 power departments, across the country. The study covered the period FY20 to FY22. The integrated ranking was derived from the discoms’ performance across three broad categories – financial stability (with a weight of 75 per cent), performance excellence (13 per cent) and external environment (12 per cent).
At the disaggregated level, the metric “ACS – ARR Gap” (under “financial stability”) was the biggest component with 35 per cent weight. Under “performance excellence” important parameters included billing efficiency and collection efficiency.
One of the major overall observations of the report was that fiscal deficit of discoms under study nearly halved in FY22, compared to FY20, despite an 8 per cent increase in gross input energy. The report also observed that AT&C losses in FY22 were 16.5 percent – a big improvement over 19.9 percent in FY20 and 21.5 percent in FY21.
Speaking of the top 10 utilities, as many as seven of them were state government discoms. The remaining three private utilities comprised Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd (Rank: 1), Noida Power Company Ltd (Rank: 7), and Tata Power Company — Mumbai (Rank: 8).
Utilities excluded from the main list
It is pertinent to note that TP Western Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPWODL) – a joint venture between Tata Power and Odisha Government – also earned the highest “A+” rating. However, TPWODL, along with five others, were not featured in the main list as they had not completed three full years of operations. Their rating and ranking were derived on the basis of performance in FY22 alone. The five other similarly excluded discoms were TP Southern Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPSODL), TP Northern Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPNODL), TP Central Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPCODL), Kashmir Power Distribution Corporation Ltd, and Jammu Power Distribution Corporation Ltd.
Key to abbreviations
AEML: Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd; UGVCL: Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd; MGVCL: Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Ltd; DNHPDCL: Dadra & Nagar Haveli Power Distribution Corporation Ltd; PGVCL: Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Ltd; DGVCL: Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd; NPCL: Noida Power Company Ltd; TPML: Tata Power Mumbai; DHBVNL: Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam Ltd; UHBVNL: Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitaran Nigam Ltd
