UPCL holds press conference
By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 1 Apr: Managing Director UPCL, Anil Kumar addressed a press conference at UPCL Headquarters here today in respect of the corrections (truing up) for the financial year 2021-22 and the Annual Performance Review (APR) for the financial year 2022-23 and for the financial year 2023-24 by the Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC).
On this occasion, it was informed by the Managing Director UPCL Anil Kumar that in September-2022, in the light of additional power purchase surcharge issued by the UERC, an increase of about 1.79 percent has been approved in the power tariff for the year 2023-24. Kumar informed that although the increase in the issued tariff order has been approved but in reality the increase approved in power tariff by the UERC as compared to what had been proposed by UPCL.
Anil Kumar was informed that last year, along with other challenges in front of UPCL, mainly due to various national and international reasons, additional power had to be purchased at very high rates. He claimed that the UPCL is always ensuring quality power supply to respected consumers at competitive rates. It is committed to ensure that the difference between the proposed and approved rates at present, necessary steps will be taken to increase the efficiency and also to cut the expenses wherever possible.
While discussing the important achievements of the Corporation in the last financial year, the MD UPCL informed that the revenue deficit has been brought down from Rs 577 crore to Rs 151 crore and thereafter to Rs 21 crore, respectively, during the past two years. He added that UPCL has obtained 88.82 marks against 100 marks in Result Evaluation Matrix of RDSS scheme. On the basis of this, under the scheme, the grant amount for the year 2021-22 will be released to UPCL and the DPR for modernisation works can be submitted for approval. Kumar said that that UPCL has achieved a new milestone by getting the Quality Management System (QMS) 9001 2015 Certificate. This certificate has been issued to UPCL in view of the best working practices and better quality management of the Corporate Office and Test Laboratory.
Kumar added that in order to see the work being done by UPCL and to share the experience of its efficient services and systems, a delegation of the Karnataka State Electricity Distribution Company (PDCL) had come to the UPCL headquarters and held a meeting with the Managing Director UPCL and higher officials and reviewed UPCL’s status and appreciated the best practices adopted by UPCL. The MD added that in the past 2 years, the difference between Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) has been brought down from 40 paise to 11 paise and thereafter to the level of 1 paise. For the year 2021-22, UPCL has achieved ‘A’ category rating by improving the integrated rating. UPCL’s rating for the year 2020-21 was B. Improvement in this rating will ensure availability of loans at lower interest, he stressed.
Kumar informed that the UPCL is currently ranked first among the Himalayan states in the consumer service rating issued by the Government of India. In the last three financial years, the AT&C losses have been brought down from the level of 20.44 percent during 2019-20 to 15.7 percent during 2021-22. REC, New Delhi has received interest subsidy of Rs 14.61 crore in the month of February-2023, while paying the loan on time. As a result of timely payment of bills of power generation companies, UPCL has saved about Rs 60 crore in the current financial year. This saving was Rs 41 crore last year.
The level of revenue collection through digital means has increased to 76 percent. The average power supply is 23.36 hours in urban areas and 23.22 hours in rural areas.
The press conference was also attended by Director (Projects) Ajay Kumar Agarwal, Director (Finance), Naveen Kumar Gupta, General Manager (HR), DS Khati and other officers.
