The first two companies selected for the Comprehensive Awards Scheme are Madhya Gujarat Distribution Company and Torrent Power.

Union Minister for Power Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday presented the bronze shield to Chairman of all ESCOMS Bharatlal and MESCOM Managing Director S Sumanth.

The Award has been instituted by the Union Ministry of Power to recognise the meritorious performance of power utilities in thermal, hydro and nuclear power generation, transmission and distribution units as well as early completion of generating units and transmission system.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bharatlal and Sumanth said that the award had been given to MESCOM for it’s overall performance during 2006-07.

Distribution loss

While distribution loss in MESCOM has come down from 16.65 per cent in FY 2005 to 15.29 per cent in FY-07,  the aggregate technical and commercial loss has been reduced to 15.3 per cent in 2007 from 22.13 per cent in FY2006. In major cities and towns the distribution loss varied between 4.60 per cent and 14.37 per cent.

Universal metering

Abiding by the directions of Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission, MESCOM has adopted universal metering programme and has completed 96.91 per cent metering of all consumer installations.

Replying to a query Sumanth said that 90 per cent of irrigation pump sets in MESCOM area have been metered.
“Another 10 per cent of IP sets  mainly in areas of Shimoga district need metering”, Sumanth  added.

To effectively carry out energy audits, the Company has initiated steps to meter all distribution transformers in major towns and cities.

Sumanth said that in three divisions they  intended to bring down the overall loss level to seven per cent. “With this we will be able to beat Bangalore city which has a loss of eight per cent,” he added.