Electricity consumers of Central Odisha are beginning to see the benefits of privatization of the power utility CESU, noted Praveer Sinha, MD & CEO, Tata Power.
Praveer Sinha was addressing a special session “Transforming the Power Distribution Business” at the virtually-held DistribuELEC 2021 event, organized by apex industry body IEEMA.
It may be recalled that on June 1, 2020, Tata Power in a 51:49 joint venture with Odisha state government-owned GRIDCO took over the operations of CESU.
The positive change is not just limited to substations and other T&D hardware, but even customer care centres and call centres are operating with greater efficiency. As Sinha put it, the idea is “to provide service when the customer needs it, not when we want to give it.”
Spread over 30,000 sqkm, CESU has five electrical circles comprising areas of Bhubaneswar (Electrical Circle – I and II), Cuttack, Paradip and Dhenkanal with a population of over 1.4 crore and consumer base of 2.5 million. The average demand of CESU is around 1,300 mw with the annual input energy (as of FY18) of 8,400 MU.
Zero complaints
The Odisha government’s web portal has a provision where citizens could lodge their grievances. Sinha added that for the first time there were zero complaints with respect to CESU. This took place on around February 15, 2021, and the information was provided by Power Secretary, Odisha government, as told by Praveer Sinha.
Entire state under Tata Power
It may be recalled that Tata Power has taken over all the four power discoms of Odisha (including CESU) and these will be operating on the lines of CESU. (Read more).
Sinha agreed that taking care of power distribution in the entire state of Odisha was a huge responsibility for Tata Power. “The whole country is watching,” he noted. Deploying new technologies and training/retraining of existing employees were the focus areas, the MD & CEO of Tata Power said. The entire exercise will involve close working with the Odisha government and Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).
Sinha said that Tata Power would need to work on implementing ERP (enterprise resource planning), IT and OT (operations technology) systems and their integration, etc. Billing systems would also need improvement and so would metering infrastructure. As Praveer Sinha observed, Odisha had a large number of energy meters that were never installed, apart from a large number of meters that needed replacement.
Delhi vs Odisha
Tata Power, through its joint venture with Government of NCT of Delhi, has successfully turned around power distribution in north and northwest Delhi. This JV, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd, is widely regarded as the forerunner of the public private partnership (PPP) philosophy in the power distribution space.
Praveer Sinha cautioned that Delhi and Odisha were very contrasting cases, and that turning around Odisha would entail much greater effort. To start with, Odisha, as Sinha observed, has a geographical area of around 1.5 lakh sqkm, which is around ten times that of Delhi (1,500 sqkm). One may note here that the area under Tata Power DDL’s control is around 510 sqkm.
Odisha has 9 million electricity consumers, which includes households in far-flung rural areas. The consumer mix also has the significant inclusion of industrial consumers. The state in its entirety would need a “huge transformation,” as Sinha put it.
Despite the on-ground challenges, Praveer Sinha asserted, “We are confident that consumers will benefit from our vast experience.”
Featured file photograph shows the inauguration of TP Central Odisha Distribution Ltd’s Master Customer Care Centre, on September 2, 2020.
