The Union power ministry, through a gazette notification dated April 15, 2021, has made it mandatory for power distribution companies to conduct an annual energy audit. So far, such an energy audit was required to be done once in three years.
These new regulations are called “Bureau of Energy Efficiency (Manner and Intervals for Conduct of Energy Audit (Accounting) in Electricity Distribution Companies) Regulations, 2021”.
The new guidelines stipulate that every electricity distribution company shall have its first energy audit (accounting) conducted, by accredited energy auditor within four months from the date of coming into effect of these regulations.
Frequency of audit
The guidelines further state that every electricity distribution company shall conduct energy audit (accounting) for every financial year within a period of 03 months from the expiry of relevant financial year. There shall not be a gap of more than 12 months between two energy audits (accounting) conducted by the electricity distribution company, and report of the energy audit (accounting) shall be presented to the management of the electricity distribution company within 04 months of the end of the period for which the energy audit (accounting) relates. It is hereby clarified that if the first energy audit (accounting) is conducted during a financial year, then the energy audit (accounting) for the said financial year shall not include the time period audited in first energy audit (accounting).
Also read:Draft Guidelines For Power Distribution Reforms Scheme Released
Pre-requisites for Energy Accounting
Electricity distribution companies shall be required to undertake all actions as may be required for the energy accounting before the first energy audit including following actions:
- Identification and mapping of all of the electrical network assets
- Identification and mapping of high tension and low tension consumers
- Development and/or implementation of information technology enabled energy accounting and audit system including associated software
- Installation and Operation of meters at all network points including consumer premises
- Establishing a centralized energy accounting and audit cell
- Identification of overloaded segments of the network for necessary capacity additions
Energy audit report
The energy audit (accounting) structure shall be jointly decided by the accredited energy auditor and electricity distribution company. The report shall:
- provide for monitoring of input energy and consumption pattern at various voltage levels;
- identify the areas of energy leakage, wastage or inefficient use;
- identify high loss-making areas/networks, for initiating target based corrective action; and
- identify overloaded segments of the network for necessary capacity additions.
The accredited energy auditor shall highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the electricity distribution company in the management of energy and energy resources in the energy audit (accounting) report and recommend necessary action to improve upon method of reporting data, energy management system in detail along with their underlying rationale.
Action by BEE
The energy audit (accounting) report shall be submitted to Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) within 04 months from the end of the relevant financial year. Based on energy audit report submitted, BEE can recommend necessary actions to be undertaken by the electricity distribution company for further improvement of energy accounting and reporting.
