Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Niti Aayog report released heaped praises on CESU (central electricity supply utility) titled ‘Turning Around the Power Distribution Sector’ where the apex planning body has included the CESU model among the country’s top-6 best practices in power distribution sector reform.
According to the reports, the Niti Aayog has included it among the top power distribution reform models in the country like – New Delhi (TPDDL) private licensee, Haryana, public licensees, Andhra Pradesh, public licensees, Gujarat, public licensees and Manipur, public licensee.
According to the report, CESU engaged FEDCO as a franchisee in four divisions in 2013. FEDCO achieved an average 23 per cent reduction in AT&C losses between 2013 and 2017. FEDCO claims this to be the steepest reduction in AT&C losses achieved in a predominantly rural area. Significantly, the Niti Aayog report paints a rosy picture of how CESU’s IBF-IRS model was working well. Why then the State government retorted back to the unbundled private licensee model?
As per the State government, the idea was to bring private investment into the distribution sector. Only time will tell, how much private investment has been ploughed into the power distribution sector in the State.
