APDCL continues its profitable run, makes Rs 250 Cr profit in first 2 quarters

Guwahati, Nov 28: From a loss-making unit, which depended on government grants, the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) has turned into a profit-making unit in the first two quarters of the current financial year. The company made a profit of Rs 250 crore. Last year also, the APDCL made a handsome profit of over Rs 300 crore.

Commenting on the turnaround of the power distribution company, official sources told The Assam Tribune that as per rules, the APDCL can keep one-third of the profit for development works and the remaining two-thirds would have to be passed on to the consumers.

Sources said that the installation of smart meters played a key role in improving the condition of the APDCL. The company has around 70 lakh consumers, and so far, around 26 lakh smart meters have been installed. The Ministry of Power, Government of India, has set a deadline of March 2026 to complete the process of installation of smart metres.

The Assam Tribune sources said that with the installation of smart meters, the billing has improved, and it will improve further when the entire process of the installation of smart meters is completed. To reduce power theft, monitoring has improved. The transmission and distribution loss, which went up to as high as around 40 percent at one point in time, has come down to around 15.08 percent, which is acceptable under the current circumstances.

Sources said that the effort of the APDCL is to provide a 24-hour uninterrupted power supply to the consumers. But sometimes, supply is disrupted due to technical reasons, weather conditions, road widening, which require shifting of the posts, etc. The voltage situation has also improved.

But there is still a possibility for improvement of the distribution system. Sources said that the APDCL has around three lakh km of transmission and distribution lines, of which one lakh km are high-tension lines. In an ideal situation, the ratio between high-tension and low-tension lines should be 1:1, which would shorten the distance between the lines connecting the transformers to consumers. But that would require a very high investment, as new lines would have to be laid and new transformers would have to be placed.

By-

R Dutta Choudhury