A day after Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik appealed to investors from across the country to take advantage of the state's business ecosystem, Tata Power Discoms announced to invest Rs 5,000 crore to ensure reliable and quality electricity supply to industries. This was stated by Tata Power's T&D, President, Sanjay Banga during an interaction with PTI here.
"We are fully committed to realise the Odisha government's vision of Make in Odisha through reliable and quality power supply to industries," he said, adding that Tata Power Discoms serve 9 million customers across the state. Banga said that Tata Power Odisha Discoms will soon be in a position to provide new industrial connections in a week to 10 days' time based on availability of network .
"Thus, we will be supporting the ease of doing business in the state. The company has already extended the facility of availing new service connection through WhatsApp and missed call services to its customers," he said. Since its takeover of Odisha Discoms, in the past two years, Banga said the company has made significant strides in various aspects of power distribution to enhance reliability of electricity supply.
Stating that the company has done a complete analysis of the state's power supply network and identified the major issues and upgradation requirements, Banga said that is helping us in ensuring reliable power supply in the state.
The company has committed a capex of approximately Rs 5,000 crore over the next five years covering the realms of network and infrastructure improvement and augmentation, technical integration, customer services, safety and others. He said the company's Odisha Discoms have also rolled out smart metering drive for industrial, commercial and government consumers. This initiative will lead to better consumption analytics resulting in customised service and energy optimisation among the high consumption category customers, he said.
Replying to a question on complaints from consumers of about alleged excess billing, Banga said: "These smart meters are NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited and BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards ) certified and are supplied by leading smart meter manufacturers of the country." While thanking the OERC for rationalising the industrial tariff in the last tariff order, the company said that Discoms believe industrial tariff will further go down in the coming years because of integration of more renewable power purchase (RPO) compliance .
"Tata Power is committed to integrate power generated from solar and wind into the energy mix. This will help the industries in Odisha meet their goals of sustainable and green power. The ATC loss reduction as per the trajectory committed to OERC will further help in tariff reduction," he said, adding that this will ultimately lead to making Odisha as one of the most sought after states by major industry players.
This apart, to manage the growing network and to ensure reliable customer service, Tata power Discoms have spruced up the total work force by hiring more than 2000 locals directly and a 20,000 strong manpower indirectly for maintenance, projects and meter replacement work resulting in higher employment creation for locals.
Banga said Tata Power Odisha Discoms was confident to bring down the overall AT&C loss level in the range of 10-12 per cent in the coming years. Besides service to industrial category, the Discoms are also committed to electrify the un-electrified households across the state under the state government's Vidyut Kutir Yojana and ensuring ease of living besides ease of doing business.
"We are committed to quality and reliable power supply in Odisha, which will play a major support to the Make in Odisha vision by ensuring that the industrial sector operating in the state or aspiring to operate here in future get world class electricity infrastructure and service, Banga added
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