Maharashtra: MSEDCL artificially reduced distribution losses, says MERC

Nagpur: After years of manipulating agricultural pump power consumption figures, MSEDCL has been finally caught red-handed. Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has accepted recommendations of a working group on agricultural sales, constituted by it, and stated that the distribution loss was far higher than that claimed by the MSEDCL.

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in its tariff hike petition had claimed that distribution loss in its area in 2018-19 was 14.7 per cent. However, the working group stated in its report that it was 5.84 per cent higher, that is 20.54 per cent. The artificial reduction was done by inflating farm pump power consumption. MSEDCL has been for years not reducing power theft and claiming that farmers were using more units and passing off electricity stolen as electricity used.