All-India Power Engineers Federation has demanded integration of all unbundled power utilities in all the states.

As per the reforms in the power sector, power generation, transmission and distribution have been unbundled and separate companies have been created in almost all the state. 

AIPEF chairman Shailendra Dubey on Wednesday said that in the larger interest of state and for better coordination and better consumer service, all states should be asked to restructure and integrate all unbundled power utilities of the respective states.

The AIPEF chairman said the Union government should introduce a separate section in National Electricity Policy to integrate the state power sector. He said the objective of combining generation, distribution and transmission under one integrated company was stated as a matter of policy for the states to adopt.

Dubey said even without a provision in National Electricity Policy, the states were empowered and at liberty to restructure their respective power utilities so as to achieve the objective of integrated operation as electricity was a concurrent subject. 

In a letter to the Union government, the AIPEF chairman said, “You are aware that with the enactment of Electricity Act, 2003, different states restructured the State Electricity Boards unilaterally. While in some states there were multiple distribution companies like in Karnataka (5 discoms), UP (5 discoms), MP (3 discoms), Haryana (2 discoms), other states retained the entire state under one discom as in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and in case of Punjab and Tamil Nadu, generation and distribution were retained as one company while transmission was separated out. The AIPEF said that it was seen that there was no uniformity and wide diversity in structure of state power utilities across the country.

Giving reasons in support of integrated structure, the letter says, “Every state has one SLDC (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. For example, if there is load crash in one portion of state (due to rain, storm etc.) SLDC can order additional supply or loading in other areas of state to offset load crash so that overall drawl by state remains without deviation