The Tenth Annual Integrated Rating and Ranking of Power Distribution Utilities has been released during the review planning and monitoring (RPM) meeting with states and state power utilities held on August 05, 2022. Further, the first Consumer Service Rating of discoms (CSRD) for 2020-21 and Bharat eSmart Mobile Application (BeSMA) were also launched during the RPM meeting.
Integrated rating exercise is being carried out annually since 2012 with the aim of evaluating performance of utilities on a range of parameters covering financial sustainability, performance excellence and external environment and their ability to sustain improvements year over year. The methodology for the rating has been comprehensively reviewed and revised in the current rating exercise. The scope of the integrated rating exercise has been broadened which now covers 71 utilities including state discoms, private discoms and power departments. The rating now lays a higher emphasis on financial performance, while also assessing operational efficiencies and external ecosystem of discoms. The rating will now be dynamic in nature based on triggers having impact on discom financials. A total of 12 discoms have made it to A+ grade, including six state-run utilities- from Gujarat (4), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1) and Haryana (1); and six private utilities- from Gujarat (2), Maharashtra (2), Uttar Pradesh (1) and West Bengal (1). Meanhile, the CSRD report captures the current status of consumer services across various discoms. It delves into key parameters of consumer services such as operational reliability, connection services, metering, billing and collection services, fault rectification and grievance redressal. The intent is to enable sharing of best practices of top performing discoms as well as to help other discoms in identifying critical areas for enhancing performance. In addition, BeSMA, a free-to-use mobile app for prepaid smart meters has been launched for the nationwide rollout of smart metering. The mobile app would build up on the data of the smart meters and would provide essential information to consumers with regard to their usage and balance electricity, both in terms of units and monetary terms. These initiatives would pave the path towards an efficient and sustainable power distribution sector.