Electricity department's 5-year business plan gets JERC nod

PANAJI

After a long wait the Goa Electricity Department has finally got the nod for its five-year 'business plan' for the control period from 2025-26 right up to 2029-30 from the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC). 

The order approving the business plan was issued by JERC Chairperson, Alok Tandon and Member (Law) Jyoti Prasad, on Wednesday (August 27).

However, the JERC has not yet approved the linked 'tariff petition' which the department had filed simultaneously with the business plan. It proposes a 5.95% overall hike in power tariffs for the current financial year (2025-26), a further 5.64% hike in tariffs for 2026–27 and another 4.88% hike is FY 2027–28.

The petition proposes no further hike in 2028-29 and 2029-30, the last two years of the business plan's five-year control period.

Chief Electrical Engineer, Stephen Fernandes told The Goan that he expects the JERC order on the tariff petition to come in the next day or two.

Meanwhile, Fernandes said, the JERC approval of the business plan will now give the department a statutory backing to implement the capital expenditure projects envisaged in the five-year plan.

The JERC had put the 'business plan' and the linked 'tariff petition' through scrutiny including a public hearing conducted on May 9 this year where stakeholders, industry representatives and several consumers participated.

The approved business plan projects Goa's power demand to spike by nearly 50 per-cent by the end of the five-year control period in 2030. From the 6,523.71 million units requirement in the current year (2025-26), the demand will shoot up to 10,132.35 million units in 2029-30, the plan projects.

T&D losses at 12%

The five-year business plan also projects a staggering 12 per-cent transmission and distribution losses including a 12.2% T&D losses -- 7.95% on the power grid within the State (intra-State) and 4.25% on the inter-State grid which brings in the electricity into the State. 

Next year (2026-27) the T&D losses have been projected at a slightly improved 12.06% -- 7.93% intra-State and 4.13% inter-State. In 2027-28 the T&D losses will decline marginally to 11.94%,  11.83% in 2028-29 and 11.7% in 2029-30.

The high T&D losses projected in the plan had drawn sharp criticism from consumers and activists during the public hearing accusing the department of doing nothing to check power thefts, including commercial consumption by hotels and tourism outlets under domestic connections.