Covid lockdown to impact electricity demand, cash flows for discoms: ICRA

New Delhi: The lockdown announced by the government to control the Covid-19 pandemic willl adversely impact electricity demand, cash flows for discoms and lead to payment delays for power generation and transmission companies, ICRA said on Monday.

The lockdown has resulted in a shutdown of the industrial and commercial establishments and stoppage of passenger railway services. This has adversely impacted the all India electricity demand, given that these segments constitute about 40% of the all India electricity demand, a statement issued by the ratings firm said.

Further, these segments account for an even greater percentage of the discoms sales revenues given that they are the subsidising segments. This apart, with the focus of state governments being on healthcare and relief measures, likelihood of subsidy support to the discoms getting deferred cannot be ruled out, it added.