Two discoms don't work: AIPEF

Hyderabad: Small, according to power engineers, is not beautiful. The All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has found that the system of having multiple electricity distribution companies (discoms) in a state has failed.

The slogan of “one state one discom” is gaining ground. The federation study found that the argument that smaller discoms would be more efficient and better managed had not been proved to be correct. There was no uniformity in the structure of state power utilities.

Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey said the Centre should integrate the power sector in all states combining generation, distribution and transmission under one integrated company.

Multiple discoms with their separate boards of directors create coordination and inter-organisational problems, the study found.

The other argument for having multiple discoms, that it would create competition and peer pressure to improve performance, has not been borne out if the transmission & distribution (T&D) losses in different discoms vary widely depending on their consumer mix.

A discom with higher industrial load would have lower losses as compared to a discom with higher agriculture load.

Mr Dubey said every state has one state load dispatch centre where the entire state is considered as one control area. This gives SLDC a clear advantage to manage load dispatch over the state as one entity.

He said if there is a load crash in one portion of the state, the SLDC can order additional supply or loading in other areas so that overall drawal of power by the state remains constant.

He said with the ‘one state, one discom’ concept the state thermal and hydro generation can be dispatched by SLDC in the most economic manner.