UPCL’s strategies praised at its Board meeting

PrashantNews

The 120th Board of Directors meeting of the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd (UPCL) was held at the company’s headquarters under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Radha Raturi.

Uttarakhand energy secretary R Meenakshi Sundram, all Directors, Independent Directors and UPCL Managing Director (MD) Anil Yadav along with other officers were also present in the meeting.

In the meeting, the main agenda points presented by UPCL were discussed and Chairperson, UPCL praised the UPCL team for the unprecedented progress made in various fields in the last financial year. Secretary (Energy) appreciated the efforts of UPCL for improving billing efficiency and collection efficiency and reducing AT&C losses. Independent Director V.P. Pandey expressed his appreciation for the important steps taken by UPCL to reduce the ACS-ARR gap by way of better financial management and innovative power purchase strategy.

The UPCL officials stated that under the leadership of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the strenuous efforts of the Managing Director, the UPCL has made number of achievements by adopting corrective strategies in various areas, which were appreciated in the meeting of the Board of Directors, the details of such main achievements are as follows:-

1. UPCL was appreciated for adopting innovative power purchase strategy and obtaining cheap electricity from short term market at a record 22 percent lower rate in the financial year 2023-24 as compared to the financial year 2022-23. By getting cheaper electricity from the market, the electricity tariff for consumers has been reduced, as a result of which it has become possible to provide smooth power supply at low rates across the state.
2. Due to the reduction in the average short term power purchase price by UPCL, the overall power purchase rate has also come down by 2.92 percent from Rs 5.48 per unit in the financial year 2022-23 to Rs 5.32 per unit in the last financial year 2023-24, for which it was appreciated.
3. UPCL was appreciated for earning a total of Rs 1093.82 crore (12.79 percent) more revenue in the financial year 2023-24 as compared to the financial year 2022-23. The highest revenue receipt in the financial year 2023-24 was Rs 9905 crore.
4. UPCL was commended for improving billing efficiency (86.11%) in FY 2023-24 by 0.49% over FY 2022-23.
5. UPCL was commended for improving collection efficiency (99.14%) in FY 2023-24 by 0.15% over FY 2022-23.
6. UPCL was commended for consistently reducing AT&C losses by 0.61% from 15.25% (2022-23) to 14.64% (2023-24) as a result of improvement in billing and collection efficiency.
7. UPCL was appreciated for achieving a significant reduction of 88 per cent (from 0.78 per unit to 0.09 per unit) in ACS-ARR difference due to better financial management in the financial year 2023-24.

Yadav informed the meeting that the above achievements have been possible due to the guidance of the Chief Minister and the instructions and efforts of the Chief Secretary and Chairperson, UPCL and the Secretary (Energy) and expressed gratitude for the appreciation of the department. Yadav also stated that at present UPCL is going to make the power distribution sector more robust and strong across the state under the ambitious schemes of the Government of India and the works of the scheme are being completed expeditiously.

With the successful implementation of the works in the coming years, more high quality reliable power supply will be provided to the consumers. It will also help in achieving the target of single digit power losses in future.