India is probably the only country in the world to provide free power to all of their farmers, as these folks provide the nation much needed food for survival. However, only a few states like Telangana are genuinely offering free power to farmers, in a hope of stealing political mileage in the upcoming elections.
But this can only lead to success when the power generation goes in balance with the earned revenue. And that’s not taking place in practical, as most of the power distributed to farmers is being misused and so is going unaccounted for different reasons. Thus, bringing down huge losses to the whole of the Indian Sub Continent.
However, the central government, led by Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narender Modi, seems to take stringent action against such malpractices from now on. They are planning to use Artificial Intelligence(AI) technology and other Machine Learning(ML) tools to keep a check on power thefts and the power wastage observed in offering free power to the farmers.
And a plan is being drafted to channelize the generated power units in a resourceful way, thus cutting down thefts, spillage and misuse.
Under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) and as per the accounted reports, the technical and commercial loss of electricity is estimated to be 17% in FY22. Coming way down from 22% the previous year.
This year, the government(FY23) is planning to leverage advanced information and communication technologies by using the power of AI/ML. Aim is to curb power thefts and cut down loss incurred through misuse.
According to the Indian Ministry of Power, installing prepaid smart meters in the model of the UK can play an active role in reducing power distribution losses in utilities. As it helps in keeping a balance of money spent on generation and usage, tightly; with less or zero human intervention in keeping a tab on energy accounting and revenue auditing.
Along with smart metering, and feedback from Advanced Metering Infrastructure, system metering- at feeder, transformer and consumer premises might also help in generating a healthy revenue for discoms, that are already jostling with losses, for reasons.
Out of 1,491,850 billion units generation of power in FY 2021-2022, only 51% of it has made the cash registers ringing. Rest all was either being wasted or going unaccounted.
Thus, to keep a check on the unaccounted usage, the Indian government led by the BJP government is interested in using AI technology and ML tools to eradicate anomalies in power distribution and revenue generation.
A Ministerial meeting with the head of the state’s, i.e. Chief Ministers, will be scheduled in May this year and a final decision will be taken thereafter.
