Power department launches website for online payment of bill
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Power Minister C Kipili Sangtam launching the website of the Power Department at Electrical office complex Dimapur on Friday. [/caption]
DIMAPUR, OCTOBER 21 : The Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) loss in electricity in Nagaland during 2015-16 stand at 68%, the highest in the country where commercial loss accounts for 40% of the total loss. The losses in case of Nagaland is primarily on account of ‘due theft and non-payment’, stated Er. Keviletuo Yiese, SE (Revenue) and Nodal Officer, Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP), at the launch of online payment of electricity bill in Dimapur.
Aiming at facilitating power consumers for easy payments of electricity bills, the State Power department website www.dopn.gov.in for online payment of electricity bill was officially launched by Minister Power Nagaland C Kipili Sangtam on Friday at Electrical office complex Dimapur.
Er. Yiese drawing attention on the power scenario of Nagaland where more than 2.55 lakhs of consumers have electricity access said the State presently has peak load demand of 145 MW and is providing more than 700 MU of energy annually to the villages and towns which have now been connected with electricity through Grid.
“Due to rapid growth, the gap between demand and supply has widened over the years. While the peak demand standing at 145 MW, Department of Power Nagaland can hardly meet about 120 MW due to infrastructural constraints,” said Er. Yiese. He also stated that by Financial Year 2019, the demand is estimated to exceed 265 MW to achieve “24x7 Power For All” policy of government of India.
Pointing out that the load demand was 120 MW between 2013- 2015, he informed that only 100 MW could be supplied while stating that the consumption in MU is 647.88.
Expressing dismay over the loss of 68% of electricity revenue in the State, the Powere minister said this loss is an indication that the State is catering to free electricity. Echoing Er. Yiese’s account on the revenue loss, Sangtam termed this practice by consumers as a ‘moral issue’.
“How do we expect the State to develop under such conditions considering Government of India under the 14 Finance Commission has changed the entire funding pattern by restricting grants and demanding larger state revenue as matching share for our developmental activities including that of services and salaries of employees,” the minister asked.
He also maintained that the department alone cannot be directly blamed as it is hugely plagued with shortage of resources starting from fund availability to man power. He lamented that the citizens also fail to understand that Power Department is a commercial department vested with supply of electric energy. He said the consumers should honestly pay electricity bills in consonance with their rights to electricity supply.
Lauding the Power department for being the first utility department in the State to provide online payment facility, he also said the consumers from the nine towns will have access to Customer Care Centre (CCC) centrally located at Dimapur for lodging their grievances and service related matters online.
Er. Yiese announced that the facility at present will be available for consumers under SDO I and SDO III Dimapur that includes nine towns and will further be extended to SDO II Dimapur, Chumukedima and Kohima by end of 2016 and rest of the towns by June 2017.
The consumers can pay electricity bill through debit and credit cards or net banking by logging on the Department’s web portal. The web portal is being assisted by (Tata Consultancy Services) TCS Ltd and BSNL.
The objective of RAPDRP (IT) project is basically to reduce AT & C loss and to improve consumer’s service delivery with the main scope to asset mapping and DGIS survey, consumer’s indexing, setting up of common Data Centre at Guwahati and Disaster Recovery Centre at Agartala, setting up of CCC at Dimapur, SAP solutions for metering, billing and collection, customer relationship management, system metering and energy auditing and network analysis.
