Meghalaya, Assam approves proposals under rdss scheme

REC Ltd on Saturday said that Meghalaya and Assam have become front-runners in terms of firming up their proposals under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), meant for the revival of discoms. ''State governments of Meghalaya and Assam have become the frontrunners in planning their operational and financial reforms as well as the underlying works to accomplish the same under Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (Nodal Agency – REC),'' an REC statement said. Accordingly, their state-level Distribution Reforms Committee (DRC) and State Cabinet have approved the proposals, including Action Plan and DPR, for consideration under the scheme, it stated. These proposals would now be put forward to the Monitoring Committee set up by the Ministry of Power for approval, it added. The Ministry of Power had launched reforms-based and results-linked, Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), with the objective to improve the operational efficiencies and financial sustainability of state-owned DISCOMs/power departments by providing financial assistance to DISCOMs for modernisation and strengthening of distribution infrastructure, aiming at improvement of the reliability and quality of supply to end-consumers

The action plans from the states include multiple reform measures aimed towards loss reduction, implementation of smart prepaid metering of majority of their consumer base, 100 per cent feeder level energy accounting by FY'23, reconductoring of old/ frayed conductors, conversion to LT ABC, bifurcation of feeders, segregation of agriculture feeders, and upgradation of billing and other IT/OT systems, in addition to works towards improving quality and reliability of supply.

Under these plans, the state governments have also committed to ensure financial viability of the discoms, such as liquidation of outstanding subsidy dues and government department dues, implementation of tariff reforms, measures to enhance consumer services etc. This time, two of the North-Eastern states have shown exemplary initiative in plan formulation for turning around of their power sector, it stated. Also, several other states are in advanced stages of submission of their proposals under the scheme. It informed that 39 out of 55 beneficiary discoms (Nodal Agencies REC and PFC) have already submitted their draft proposals and are in active discussions with Nodal Agencies for their finalization, while the balance discoms are also expected to send their proposals shortly.