Kolkata, July 12 (KNN) Transmission and distribution (T&D) losses is one major menace which SMEs and even the large industrial units have to unfortunately pay for.

In an attempt to reduce the T&D losses incurred by the power distribution companies in Bengal, West Bengal Electricity Regulatory Commission (WBERC) recently signed an MoU with Korean power company, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), to conduct a feasibility study as an attempt to analyze the causes and measures to check the same.

KEPCO is expected to carry out a research on the distribution facilities in the state and then inform WBERC of the results, including the actual reasons for the losses which will help designing the appropriate  measures to counter the same.

Talking to KNN about the repercussions of the huge T&D losses on MSMEs, Anil Aggarwal, Managing Director, PME Power Solutions, said, “As per the World Resources Institute, average electricity T&D losses in India tend to be more than  27 percent - the highest in the world.”

The entrepreneur said that half of this loss is due to technical glitches and usage of fault, inappropriate and inefficient equipment and the other half is lost to pilferage or accounts to the free or subsidized electricity for  farmers.

Now any such loss is obviously transferred to the consumers be it household consumers or the SMEs or the big corporates, he added.

“All these losses are ultimately bound to be covered by other non-subsidized and legitimate consumers too. Especially the SMEs being the hard core manufacturing base become the most affected victims of the same. They due to such a huge loss are unable to get electricity at competitive prices hence leading to their ouster from international competition,” Aggarwal, who is also the Senior President at industry body FISME, said.

“To curb this menace levelled against our SMEs there needs to be stringent regulations mandating the use of energy efficient equipment, reduction of the line lengths and correct installation of all the equipment etc. All this is definitely not an overnight affair perhaps, all these  technical intricacies if attentively taken care of can immensely help overcome the issue,” the expert opined

However , Agarwal sounded apprehensive about the outcome of the study to be conducted by KEPCO and is of the view that such studies could well be conducted by the Indian entities who would definitely have a better knowhow about the situation prevailing in the state  specifically and  in  India as a whole. (KNN/ GK)