WORKSHOP ON ‘IT APPLICATIONS FOR ELECTRICITY ACCOUNTING’

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Union Power Minister, Shri Anant G. Geete, in his inaugural address at a Workshop on "IT Applications for Electricity Accounting" here today, has said that there is urgent need to upgrade the distribution system and cut down the losses in the power system. He also stressed the need to come up to the expectations of the consumers. Welcoming the participants, he said that the Workshop should find out how to use Information Technology in order to enhance the performance in the energy sector. He added that the implementation of IT initiative will result in improvement in reliability and quality of supply, increased productivity, reduced technical and commercial losses and customer satisfaction.

The one-day Workshop is deliberating on how Electricity Accounting with IT Application can cut down the transmission and distribution losses. It will also discuss electricity accounting with necessary IT interface that will enable data networking at feeder level linking various consumers and would be the ultimate solution for accounting the T&D losses. Such mechanism would facilitate necessary information up to feeder level to the management of the utilities and would compel them to initiate corrective actions at the earliest. The Workshop is also deliberating how IT application in electricity accounting along with other IT measures such as consumer indexing, billing, consumer grievance/satisfaction will bring about major changes in power sector and will be instrumental in making the sector financially viable and efficient. The Workshop is also discussing IT options available at present, financing options available and the policy initiatives relating to the theme.

The workshop is being attended by senior officers of State Power Utilities, officials from the Ministry of Power, Central Electricity Authority in addition to representatives of IT industries. The Workshop has been organized by the Power Finance Corporation.