 "Distribution firms owe Rs 550-600 cr to Power Grid")
New Delhi: Transmission major Power Grid is also bearing the brunt of poor financial health of power distribution companies as discoms are yet to pay dues of Rs 550-600 crore to the state-run company.
“Transmission charges due from distribution companies, including those from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, are about Rs 550-600 crore,” said a senior Power Grid official.[caption id=“attachment_377008” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
Power woes. Reuters[/caption]
Discoms have to pay Power Grid charges related to carrying electricity to the grid.
“We have submitted a petition to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to recover the outstanding dues,” the official said.
Generally, discoms have a period of 60 days-from the day of electricity transmission-to pay the required charges to Power Grid. If payments are not made during that period, then the total charges are considered as dues.
According to the official, total monthly transmission charges are about Rs 950 crore.
Power Grid is responsible for transmission of electricity across the country.
The company plans to add about 40,000 circuit kilometres in the 12th Five-Year Plan period ending March 2017. Currently, it has over 94,000 circuit kilometres of lines.
One circuit kilometre generally refers to one kilometre of electrical transmission line.
The precarious financial health of discoms is a major concern for the power sector and the government is working on restructuring their debt worth about Rs 2 lakh crore.
Lower tariff realisation and high transmission and distribution losses have been mainly blamed for the poor financial position of discoms.
As per the Shunglu panel report released last year, the net loss, after subsidies, of 15 discoms-which account for over 90 per cent of the country’s power consumption-was Rs 27,000 crore for the year ended 31 March 2010.
PTI