Vinod Raphael, Country Business Head—OMRON Electronic & Mechanical Components Business, India
- August 12, 2017
OMRON has been earnestly addressing the issue of power theft, which is one of most crucial concerns affecting the performance of not only the power utilities but also the overall demand and supply management of electricity in the country. We all know how important is the role of power sector in the overall economic growth and development of a country. India ranks 5th in the world in terms of installed capacity, however more than 300 million people still do not have access to electricity. The utility electricity sector in India has one National Grid with an installed capacity of 329.23 GW as on June 30, 2017.
Talking about the glimpses of power theft scenario across the globe, India leads the pack with an annual loss of $16.2 billion followed by Brazil, $10.5 billion and Russia $5.1 billion; the cumulative loss stands at $89.3 billion worldwide.
Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses are one of the key causes of this parity running as high as 1.5 per cent of the country’s GDP. Over the last few years, power theft, continues to be one of the major constituents of this figure, presenting an intricate challenge to the utilities who strive to find a long term solution to curb the menace.
We have made and are making rapid strides in this ever dynamic digital world and so are the electricity thieves. They are using uses advanced instruments such as Electro Static Discharge (ESD), Jammer devices which disturb the accurate energy measurement and recording of static electronic energy meters without leaving any physical evidence on the meters.
Hence, I feel it’s time that the industry and government stakeholders move swiftly to actualize the implementation of long term solutions to curb this. I am quite hopeful that with the launch of initiatives like UDAY, 100% rural electrification, Smart Grid Mission, the efforts shall gain pace and will reveal fruitful results in over the coming few years.
