Power utilities in the State are bracing for a steep decline in energy consumption in the next two months.
Officials are estimating consumption to fall by up to 20% due to the lack of commercial activity and railway traffic. Some fear that the consumption might fall even further if the present trends continued.
According to official sources, the revenues of the power utilities are being badly hit due to the decline in grid consumption from 190.5 Million Units (MU) on March 21 to 154.50 MU by March 26. The revenue collection stood at only ₹158.60 crore during this period, which is only 40% of the receipts in the same month last year.
Officials state that normalcy can return by August if the monthly consumption goes down by 20%. If the fall in consumption goes down by 30%, it would take up to September for the situation to stabilise.
Officials fear that in the wake of a steep fall in consumption, the discoms would be unable to fulfil their payment obligations to the generators. To keep the utilities afloat, the State government provided guarantees for securing loans to the tune of ₹3,500 crore from the Power Finance Corporation Limited.
The Central government also revised the Letter of Credit (LC) requirement for the above period.
Apart from this, the power utilities have sought a moratorium for three months on debt servicing schedules to relieve themselves of the stress on cash flows and secure a window for further financing.
“In spite of various bailout measures, we are expecting additional financial deficit considering the dip in collections and other revenue sources,” a senior official in the Energy Department said, while maintaining that the State government is ready to overcome the crisis by setting up special task forces to deal with the issue.
