May 9, 2013

The Bihar state government has initiated the privatization of power distribution network in 12 cities and awarded the contract for Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur.

State Energy Secretary – Sandeep Poundrik made this announcement at the daylong conference on “Powering Bihar: approaches to distribution reforms”. Talking about Patna, Poundrik said the distribution companies have decided to change the existing eligibility criteria to attract experienced players. He admitted that the T&D loss in Bihar was huge.

“The Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited (BSPHCL) spends Rs. 600 crore per month on purchasing power, establishment cost and interest and hardly get Rs. 250 crore per month from revenue collection. We have set a target of Rs. 400 crore revenue collection in the current financial year,” Poundrik said.

Energy Minister, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, said Bihar would be able to generate 5,000 MW power by 2015. Keeping this in view, a regulatory commission is formed to take necessary decision besides making suggestions to improve the existing power scenario in the state and the government is always ready to provide the necessary funds for plan implementation and execution.

Praveer Sinha, CEO of Tata Power Delhi Distribution, while delivering a keynote address, suggested a number of areas and challenges to be looked into. Bihar is a progressive state and many industries are interested in investing here but power scenario in the state is not good enough to meet their demand.

Sinha also presented the success story of Delhi model in power sector in areas like transformer failure, peak load, supply, recovery, street lighting, etc. The biggest thing behind the Delhi model’s success is the improvement in technology, quality, services and approach.