Summary

Here, we have presented a bird's eye view of the power generation sector along with a special focus on the key issues and challenges facing the power distribution utilities. These might be outlined as follows: Shortage of power, Poor management of distribution utilities, High technical and commercial losses (involving theft and pilferage of electricity), Privatisation, Non- remunerative tariff structure, and restructuring, Low Consumer Satisfaction, Poor Quality Power.

• The main purpose for power shortage lies in lack of adequate generation of power and in often breakdowns in the power distribution system.
• The poor management of distribution utilities is responsible for several ills such as poor infrastructure, power theft and misuse, financial crunch, corruption, etc.
• High aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT & C), in the range of 50% result from a number of factors like as ill managed equipment and substations, ageing transformers, inadequate investments for infrastructure improvement, overloading of system elements, insufficient reactive compensation, etc.
• Non-remunerative tariff structure additional weakens the condition of the distribution utilities, and particularly the State Electricity Boards. There is substantial cross subsidization in retail tariffs amongst several consumer categories.
• Privatization and restructuring has been adopted as a means to streamline the distribution sector that is considered to be the weakest link in the entire supply chain. The choice of privatization model, its process and sequencing is a real challenge before the sector.
• Low consumer satisfaction results from frequent power cuts, load shedding, inability to give good customer complaint redressal service, lack of responsiveness in giving new connections, solving the problems of supply disruptions or taking care of the issues relating to bills.
• The problems of poor quality of power supply that is erratic with massive voltage fluctuations (280 kV to 435 kV) are quite common.
• Other problems involve 100% overhead networks that make the system quite vulnerable to weather conditions, inadequate load management leading to peaks and valleys that are beyond manageable limits and highly unreliable power supply.
• Several steps can be taken through the utilities to meet these challenges. Some of these are

- improving metering efficiency;

- Appropriate energy accounting and auditing;

- Improved collection and billing efficiency;

- fixing of accountability of the personnel/feeder managers which may help considerably in reduction of AT&C loss;

- Giving better quality power in terms of voltage fluctuations and reliability by reducing power cuts;

- Better renovation, maintenance and modernization;

- Instituting a customer complaint redressal mechanism, this is more responsive and proactive

- Adopting better management practices;

- Application of Information Technology.