With 100% electrification, Telangana powers ahead

Takes top position in electricity access in just six years of its formation, says CEEW study

Hyderabad: Telangana has made strides both in terms of creating energy infrastructure and providing electricity access to both urban and rural households across the State. Besides topping in electrification, it has also done well in ensuring continuous power supply, according to a research.

The study, by Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW), South Asia’s leading not-for-profit policy research institution, has brought out the strong position that Telangana is in when it comes to electricity access. Being one the youngest States in the country, Telangana — in just the sixth year of its existence — has outperformed many other States such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan in access to electricity.

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Shalu Agrawal, Programme Lead, CEEW, told Telangana Today, “Telangana has achieved 100 per cent electrification while States such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan are at 96.9 per cent, 96.8 per cent and 96 per cent, respectively. Uttar Pradesh is the least electrified State in the country at 93.2 per cent. Discoms in Telangana have also done better than their counterparts.”

“From the electricity supply perspective, Telangana has seen about 22.5 hours of electricity supply per day on an average and is among the top five States while the national average is less than 20 hours of supply per day,” she noted.

The report is based on the findings from the India Residential Energy Survey (IRES) 2020 conducted by CEEW in collaboration with the Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP). The IRES, covering nearly 15,000 households in 1,210 villages and 614 wards across 152 districts in 21 States, is the first-ever pan-India survey on the state of energy access, consumption and energy efficiency in Indian homes.

Using the nationally representative IRES, this CEEW study undertakes an independent assessment of the quality and reliability of power supply and consumer satisfaction with electricity services. Further, it analyses how distribution companies (discoms) handle the metering, billing, and payment collection (MBC) process across households.

A total of 500 households were randomly chosen and surveyed from Khammam, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Ranga Reddy and Warangal districts in the State. Interestingly, rural households in Telangana are getting two hours more electricity supply in a day as compared to the urban households of a larger State such as Uttar Pradesh, the research shows.

“In urban Telangana, 100 per cent of the households surveyed had electricity supply, functional metres and were regularly billed. It was also found that all the houses use LPG for cooking. Also, more than one-third of the total households in Telangana surveyed were aware of the renewable energy sources such as roof solar power systems, as found in other progressive States that have made efforts in the renewable energy space across the country,” Shalu Agrawal said.

The independent think tank CEEW also tried to study the billing efficiencies versus discoms’ financial health, where it found Telangana discoms were operating better compared with that of many other States.

Telangana for its social housing and street lighting had also partnered with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to ensure energy efficiency, which other States could emulate, she added.

CEEW points out that electrification has reached 97 per cent pan-India. However, about 2.4 per cent population has either affordability issue or is in the process of getting electrification or electricity has not reached their housing cluster yet. Pan-India, the study shows there is a need to improve awareness of energy-efficient lighting and other appliances.

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