Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited
Mahavitaran or Mahadiscom or MSEDCL (Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited) is a public sector undertaking (PSU) controlled by the Government of Maharashtra. It is the largest electricity distribution utility in India (2nd largest in Asia after SGCC). MSEDCL distributes electricity to the entire Maharashtra state[1] except some part of Mumbai city where Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport, Tata Power and Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited are electricity distributors.
 | |
| Government owned | |
| Industry | Electricity distribution |
| Founded | 6 June 2005 (Carved out of MSEB) |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India] |
Area served | 308,000 km2 (119,000 sq mi) 457 Cities & 41,095 Villages of Maharashtra |
Key people | Shri. Aseem Kumar Gupta |
| Products | Electricity |
| Revenue | Rs. 84,000 Crore ($11.2 Billion) for 2018-19 |
Number of employees | 66521 (2019) |
| Parent | Government Of Maharashtra |
| Divisions | 140 |
| Website | www |
History
The erstwhile Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) was looking after Generation, Transmission & Distribution of Electricity in the State of Maharashtra. But with enactment of Electricity Act 2003 of the Government of India, MSEB was unbundled into 4 Companies on 6 June 2005 viz.
- MSEB Holding Company Limited.
- Mahanirmiti (महानिर्मिती) or Mahagenco (Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MSPGCL))
- Mahapareshan (महापारेषण) or Mahatransco (Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL))
- Mahavitaran (महावितरण) or Mahadiscom (Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL))
Of these, Mahavitaran is responsible for distribution of electricity throughout the state by buying power from either MahaGenco, Captive Power Plants or from other State Electricity Boards and Private sector power generation companies. The 'MSEB Holding Company' was created to hold all the stakes in these three companies.
Consumer base
MSEDCL supplies electricity to a staggering 27 million consumers across the categories all over Maharashtra. There are about 20.7 million Domestic Residential (72.4%), 4 million Agricultural (16%), 1.7 million commercial (7%) and0.346million industrial consumers (1.8 0%) in MSEDCL who fetch an Annual Revenue of about Rs.500 million. The consumption share of Residential Consumers is 19.03%, Commercial Consumers is 7.35%, Industrial Consumers is 42%, Agricultural Consumers is 25.13% and others is 6.49%.
Sources of power
MSEDCL's sources of power include thermal, hydro, gas and non conventional sources like solar, wind, bagasse etc. apart from hydro power of the Koyna Hydroelectric Project. Thermal power constitutes the major share which it gets from Mahagenco projects, Central Sector projects and RGPPL.
Infrastructure
In terms of infrastructure, MSEDCL operates a vast far flung network comprising
- 33 kV, 22 kV & 11 kV transmission lines,
- Sub-stations and Distribution Transformers spread over 3.08 lakh km2 geographical area of Maharashtra covering 41,095 villages and 457 towns. It has 2680 sub-stations & Switching Stations with 49,000 MVA of transformation capacity, 10,334 HV feeders, and several thousand circuit km of HT and LT lines.
Human resource development
MSEDCL has a workforce of about 69,000 employees. This force is the real asset of the company . The welfare and well being of this asset has been given top priority by the company. As such it has enhanced the scope of training facilities to a great extent. In addition to the existing 4 training centers, MSEDCL has recently established well equipped 25 training centers at Circle offices which impart necessary training to line staff. Every year about 20000 employees are put through refresher/professional/HR trainings. Safety is given special importance and safety training is imparted to line staff on regular basis. Engineers are also deputed to various other well reputed training centers outside Maharashtra for training under MDP module and also deputed for training under DRUM Project of USAID on regular basis.
Social responsibility
In last 2 years, about 2000 wards of deceased employees have been provided with jobs. Two ITIs at Vaijapur (Dist. Aurangabad) and Kalyan have been adopted to improve facilities their to help the local population.
Empowering women employees
Ever increasing number of female engineers in the workforce of MSEDCL necessitated the thought of their empowerment. A novel idea of formation of all women's squads popularly known as Damini Pathaks is being implemented. A Damini Pathak, headed by a local female engineer and assisted by 2-3 outsourced female employees, equipped with digital camera, a security guard in uniform and a vehicle has been established at each of the Circle offices under the leadership of respective Superintending Engineers. The task assigned to these squads is to undertake surprise checks of the photo meter readings in their area. The aim of the exercise is to address the consumer complaints regarding photo meter reading. The members of the squad visit the households between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. when generally housewives are present at homes. The squads are working satisfactorily and results are encouraging.
Mahila Bachat Gat
We do come across the instances of women's self-help groups like Mahila Bachat Gats helping poor and needy women earn their livelihood through production and marketing of home products. MSEDCL thought to exploit the vast woman power by offering them some good opportunities on bigger scale. It offered the Mahila Bachat Gats across the state to come forward and undertake the work of distribution of energy bills. This is indeed a great initiative towards empowering women. Accordingly, some of the Mahila Bachat Gats have already taken up the said works at various places in the State and an overall response is quite encouraging. It is hoped that the women engaged in this would experience significant rise in their daily earnings.
Important projects
To overcome the power crisis and improve consumer services MSEDCL made in-depth study involving sub- division wise research of distribution network and planned ambitious projects. They include :
Infra-plan
MSEDCL's existing network handles a load of about 10,000 to 11,000 MW. By 2012, there will be an addition of another 10,000 MW in the system. With a view to cater future load, provide quality, reliable energy supply and reduce losses MSEDCL formulated a Rs. 11000 crore infrastructure plan. The plan envisages erection and commissioning of 586 sub-stations, 52351 circuit kilometers of HT lines, 58,629 distribution transformers besides augmentation of existing network. MSEB had erected 1846 sub-stations during its lifetime, whereas MSEDCL aims to construct 586 sub stations in just 2 years. A leap forward in the direction of infrastructure development. The project is being implemented on total turn-key basis and through 119 DPRs. Orders of about Rs. 9189 crore have already been placed on various agencies. Earlier capital investment for infrastructure development was a paltry sum of Rs. 200 to 300 crore per year. The new infrastructure with augmentation and renovation of the distribution network will revolutionize the quality and reliability of supply.
Load management
MSEDCL has been implementing long term Load Management schemes to reduce load shedding. Feeder separation is one such long term scheme in which agriculture feeders are carved out. This not only helps load management but also strengthens the infrastructure and reduces technical losses. MSEDCL has also implemented Single Phasing Scheme in some parts of Maharashtra. Currently rural areas face 8.30 to 11 hours of load shedding a day which is decided by MERC. However, the load shedding hours have been almost halved in about 24,461 villages that have been covered so far under these schemes. The load shedding duration of these villages has come down to 2.00 to 5.45 hours which is on par with urban areas. The project cost of these schemes is Rs. 3233 crore.
Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidhutikarn Yojana (RGGVY)
This is a flagship scheme of Govt. of India. There are 4,709 villages and 13,44,087 identified BPL households targeted to be electrified under this scheme. MSEDCL had prepared proposals for 34 schemes costing Rs. 829 crore for 33 districts of Maharashtra. Maharashtra has been implementing the scheme and has spent Rs. 443 crore so for. Connections to 905541 BPL households have been released and 4243 villages electrified under the scheme. BPL families are provided with 1.5 point power connections at a nominal charge of Rs.15/- each and the villages are electrified as per new definition under this scheme.
Restructured – Accelerated Power Development & Reforms Programme (R-APDRP)
R-APDRP is a flagship scheme sponsored by Govt. of India and financed by Power Finance Corporation of India (PFC). There are 134 towns having population more than 30,000 as per 2001 census selected in Maharashtra under this scheme. The scheme is being implemented in two phases – Part-A and Part-B. Creation of IT infrastructure and allied works are included in Part-A for which a turn key contract for 95 towns has been awarded to M/s.Larsen & Toubro Ltd. while M/s Spanco Ltd has been awarded the Part 'A' contract for remaining 35 towns. On completion of Part-A, the works under Part-B which include renovation and modernization of distribution network, load bifurcation, load balancing, arial bunched conductoring, HVDS, capacitor bank etc. will be taken up. Distribution loss in R-APDRP towns is targeted to be reduced to 15%.
Major achievements post restructuring
Energisation of Agricultural Pumps : Maharashtra has a record number, highest as compared to any state, of agricultural pumps energized so far. The number is about 30 lakhs. Earlier, there used to be a long list of pending applications and the farmers used to wait for years together for supply. The issue was addressed in a proper perspective by MSEDCL. Nowadays about 1 lakh agricultural pumps are energized every year. MSEDCL, in a year or two, would be in a position to grant agricultural connections on demand on par with other categories of consumers.
Loss reduction
In 5 years, MSEDCL reduced distribution losses from 35% to 20% through various drives such as:
Anti theft drive
This is being implemented on regular basis. MSEDCL has established 43 flying squads functioning under Security and Enforcement department to detect and handle power theft cases quickly.
Meter shifting
For many consumers, meters were installed in hard-to-access places, making theft easy to conceal. MSEDCL, therefore, decided to shift all meters to the front of buildings to make them as conspicuous as possible. This project is currently in progress on a large scale.
Mass meter replacement project
MSEDCL has decided to replace all the meters which have been in service for last 10 years and more under mass meter replacement programme. It is planned to replace all the electro mechanical meters with static ones. A process has already been initiated for purchasing about 30 lakh meters for the purpose. This is a huge project which will definitely lead to increase in metered sale.
Energy accounting
MSEDCL has undertaken accurate energy accounting through various methods such as :
Feeder metering
MSEDCL plans to install high quality meters at all necessary system points, including interconnecting points. Feeder metering of all 10,240 feeders in complete and again, photo reading of these feeder meters are taken.
DTC metering
There are in all 2,84,633 Distribution Transformer Centers(DTCs) in operation, out of which about 1.51 Lakh DTCs have already been metered.
Distribution franchisee
Bhiwandi, a powerloom city, had typical problems like rampant theft and non-payment. MSEDCL opted for an input based franchisee model for electricity distribution. It has handed over Bhiwandi Circle to M/S Torrent Power on 26 January 2007. This experiment proved to be very successful and a trend setter in power distribution sector of the Country. Recently the company has appointed Distribution Franchisees for Aurangabad Urban I & II Divisions of Aurangabad Urban Circle and Gandhibag, Civil Lines and Mahal Divisions of Nagpur Urban Circle.
Zero load shedding model
Zero Load Shedding Model is being implemented at certain places with the active participation of local citizens through consumer groups and peoples representatives. The mechanism is extremely transparent and is prior approved by the Regulator. In this model, a costly power to the extent of shortfall is arranged for which a reliability charge is levied upon the local consumers. Beginning in Pune, the model was implemented in Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pen and Baramati. Of late MSEDCL itself filed a petition before the MERC for implementing Zero Load Shedding Model at all the Headquarters of Revenue Divisions - Nagpur, Amravati, Navi Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad. The MERC approved the proposal and the model was implemented at these headquarters from December 2009. MSEDCL has planned to extend it further to district headquarters, taluka headquarters and so on.
Improvement in consumer services
Online bill payment facility has been made available for all LT consumers across the state by commissioning own Payment Gateway on MSEDCL website www.mahadiscom.in. Earlier the facility was available to People in Pune, Bhandup, Kalyan, Thane, Vashi, Kolhapur, Nashik, Aurangabad and Nagpur only. A Consumer Facilitation Center (CFC) consists of a single window system with a help desk for customers. The CFCs accept consumer complaints, application forms for new connections, meter change requests and name or address change forms etc. Six state of the art CFCs have been opened at Rastapeth Pune, GaneshKhind Pune, Nagpur, Amravati, Nanded and Baramati. More are being planned. Small CFCs at 32 Circle headquarters have been established and more being established. Fifteen call centers have been established at the Municipal Corporations of kalyan, Bhandup, Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Sangli, Akola, Solapur, Nanded, Dhule, Jalgaon, Ahmednagar and Amravati. Customers can receive their monthly bills via email by registering on MSEDCL's website. Internal Complaints Redressal Units at all 40 Circles established. Consumers approach this platform for redress of their complaints before going in appeal before Zonal Consumer Grievances Redressal Forums which are there at every Zonal Headquarters.
References
- "मुंबई छोड़ पूरे महाराष्ट्र में बिजली सस्ती" [Mumba'ī chōṛa pūrē mahārāṣṭra mēṁ bijalī sastī]. Aaj Tak (in Hindi). January 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2015.