In this exclusive interview, we have Nilesh Kane, Chief – Mumbai Distribution, Tata Power, talking about various aspects of Tata Power’s power distribution business in Mumbai. Kane covers a wide range of issues ranging from how Tata Power ensured business continuity during the COVID pandemic right up to how the premier utility has been pioneering demand side management (DSM)-related initiatives for both residential and industrial consumers. Kane also notes with pride that Tata Power is fully geared up to equip all its consumers with smart meters, which can also be converted into the prepaid mode, with a simple programming intervention. An interview by Venugopal Pillai.
Let us start by understanding the current consumer base of Tata Power’s Mumbai distribution area. What is the broad break-up in terms of residential, commercial and industrial consumers?
The current customer base of Tata Power in Mumbai is 7.4 lakh. Tata Power load breakup is: residential, 43 per cent; commercial, 24 per cent; and Industrial 33 per cent.
MERC has since allowed consumers in Mumbai to switch from their existing service providers – BEST, Adani Electricity Mumbai and Tata Power. What has been the net impact on Tata Power’s consumer base so far?
So far, 15,000 consumers have switched over to Tata Power from Adani and BEST. Also, more than 35,000 consumers have opted to become changeover consumers of Tata Power.
Incidentally, have consumers in south Mumbai, served by BEST, opted to switch to Tata Power?
Yes, consumers are open to migrating from BEST to Tata Power. The main reason behind this is the safety and quality services provided by Tata Power. Tata Power is also the only utility in Mumbai City area to offer open access to consumers.
Generally speaking, the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse bearing on power distribution companies. How did Tata Power cope with the situation in Mumbai?
COVID 19 pandemic has brought the whole world to standstill due to the complete lockdown, which was never expected. Tata Power is an essential utility, was committed to serving 7.4 Lakhs consumers 24×7 in the Mumbai license area.
In view of the pandemic and the lockdown, the Tata Power Distribution team revisited the established Business Continuity Management System. The new way of doing the business operations was innovated and rolled out to manage the daily activities to ensure reliable power supply to the consumers in Mumbai. The various initiatives taken are
- Process automation for meter reading and billing quality checks
- Emergency power supply to COVID centers
- Doorstep services to consumers like old age and differently-abled consumers started providing them cheque /cash pick-up facilities for bill payment
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Please discuss in particular how the standard practices of Tata Power — instated even before the pandemic — helped the utility to mitigate the pandemic impact.
The various methods for a contactless and paperless operation like dynamic forms through GIS, remote operations through SCADA, digital shift handing over helped in maintaining the network with a reduced probability of the infection. These systems not only limited the spread of infection but also provided other benefits such as robust systems, cost savings due to optimization of material & manpower consumption, better analytics.
Please elaborate on how Tata Power is using digital platforms for billing and collection. How has collection efficiency improved in recent times, as a consequence?
Tata Power has taken many initiatives to spread awareness regarding the digitalization of Electricity Bills and collections like e-bill, WhatsApp bill, spot bill, smart meters, etc. The digital payment index has reached up to 85 per cent. In fact, during the pandemic, the digital payment index had reached 97 per cent.
We understand that Tata Power already has a sizeable base of smart meters in Mumbai. Tell us more. What are the medium-term smart meter rollout plans for the city? What are the typical features that these smart meters?
Tata Power has installed 35,000 smart meters so far and is expected to install 50,000 smart meters by the end of this fiscal year, FY22. As a mid-term plan, we are expected to complete 1,00,000 smart meters by FY23. Further, all direct consumers will be covered with smart meters by FY24.
With the installation of smart meters, Tata Power has also enabled its customers with valuable data analytics tools. Customers can now view and optimize their electricity consumption in near real-time through the customer portal and mobile app on an hourly, daily, or on monthly basis. The smart meter rollout has witnessed positive support from customers who are appreciating this effort by Tata Power.
The Union power ministry has planned a massive nationwide rollout of 25 crore prepaid meters over the next 3-5 years. While such prepaid meters, as we appreciate, would largely relate to consumers of state discoms, rather than private utilities, what is Tata Power’s inclination and preparedness in this regard?
As just discussed, Tata Power is already in the process of rolling smart meters for consumers. In this journey, we had already installed around 35,000 meters in our licensee area where through smart App they can have ready access to their meter data in turn controlling the their consumption.
The beauty of the smart meter is that by doing a simple programming routine, the same meter can be used as a prepaid meter and no separate capital investment is required to roll out prepaid meters.
In cities like Delhi, the regulation is already laid where the consumer can opt for prepaid meters. If our consumers in Mumbai wish to have prepaid meters, Tata Power is completely ready to address the needs of the consumers.
What have been Tata Power’s activities in Mumbai towards demand-side management (DSM), with a view to flattening the peak load curve?
Tata Power is a pioneering discom when it comes to DSM-related activities. In Mumbai, we have several initiatives for consumers to promote energy efficiency and conservation. We have an appliance exchange program where we subsidize the consumer to replace his old energy-guzzling gappliance with a new 5-star superefficient appliance at a large discount. We have programs for ceiling fans, LED tubes, refrigerators and split ACs.
For industrial and commercial consumers, we offer detailed and walk-through energy audits which give them specific recommendations to improve efficiency.
Load shift is promoted through tariff-based incentives such as ToD (time of day) tariff, load factor incentive, etc. The promotion of rooftop solar is a major initiative where our consumers have installed more than 350 plants. This solar power gets generated in the daytime (peak hours), which indirectly helps us to flatten the load curve.
Please discuss Tata Power’s overall plans towards further improving the technical and commercial efficiency of its Mumbai distribution area
We have the lowest technical and commercial (AT&C( losses in the country which is in the range of 1 to 1.5 per cent.
For years, it is our constant endeavour to improve efficiency in the technical and commercial areas. Our networks are designed optimally. we try to incorporate the latest technology solutions. Our thrust has always been on automated smart meters. We aggressively look at collection efficiency. Energy audit, advanced meter testing labs and automation are the areas where our efforts are expected to give improved commercial efficiency.
