Restoring financial viability of the power sector in Madhya Pradesh requires a holistic approach encompassing technical, institutional, and governance measures. The Madhya Pradesh power sector has been suffering from structural problems such as persistently high level of ATC losses, increasing cost of generation and power purchase, and limited scope of tariff increase as industrial tariffs have already reached the cost of captive power generation. Improving the operational efficiency of utilities and tariff adjustments aimed at reducing the cross-subsidies to residential and agricultural consumers can help, but the underlying problem in the power sector remains the high ATC losses. The reduction of ATC losses requires technical measures (reducing the overloading of distribution feeders and measures such as HVDS and bundled conductors to prevent electricity pilferage), institutional measures (improved metering, billing and bill collection) as well as governance-related actions (discouraging electricity theft by taking legal action against the pilferers). However, the underlying political economy such as affordability and competitiveness of Madhya Pradesh’s agriculture sector in the event of full cost recovery of supply of electricity to agriculture needs to be addressed.
Madhya Pradesh Power Sector Development Program [Loans 1868/1869]