Agriculture customers power consumption analysis to reduced power losses in winter

Abstract

Indian agriculture crop production mostly yields in winter season. To increase the food output, almost all the State Governments show benevolence to farmers and arrange supply of electric power for irrigation to the farmers at a nominal rate, and in some States, without charges at all. In view of this, most Electricity Boards supply power to agriculture sector and claim subsidy from the State Govt. based on energy consumption. Since the energy supplied to the agriculture sector is a generous gesture by the State Govt., all the electricity boards have eliminated energy meters for agriculture sector services. The absence of energy meters provides ample opportunities to SEBs to estimate average consumption in agriculture sector at a much higher value than the actual. In the absence of energy meters, most of the SEBs resort to fudging consumption figures to include not only the under estimated T&D Losses but also energy theft from their system. The extent of fudging is more in the States where agricultural activity is high. The benefit derived by these boards is not only the extent of subsidy from the respective States but also self-praise by showing much less transmission and distribution losses. Further the boards are ignoring the inefficiency in operating the distribution system by blaming the agricultural supply for all ills and raising the tariff of other consumers.