MSEB Office Kharghar Listed in MSEB Electricity Office Located in Kharghar,Panvel ntroduction The erstwhile Maharashtra State Electricity Board was looking after Generation, Transmission & Distribution of Electricity in the State of Maharashtra barring Mumbai. But after the enactment of Electricity Act 2003, MSEB was restructured into 4 Companies viz. MSEB Holding Co. Ltd., Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. (Mahavitaran), Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd. (Mahagenco) and Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co. Ltd. (Mahatransco) on 6th June 2005. Mahavitaran distributes electricity to consumers across the State except Mumbai. Consumer Base: Mahavitaran supplies electricity to a staggering 2.20 Crore consumers across the categories in Maharashtra. There are about 1, 62, 61,420 Residential, 36, 67,883 Agricultural, 15, 69,043 Commercial 4, 38,366 Industrial and 1,29,661 other consumers in Mahavitaran. Load-shedding Free State: As declared by the State government, Maharashtra has already become load shedding free in December 2012. During that time, it was the responsibility of Mahavitaran to make available the required amount of power of the State. Accordingly, measures such as Long Term and Short Term planning were done under the guidance and active support of the State Government. In the Long Term Planning, the work of Capacity Addition was carried out. In the Short Term Planning; the work of Demand Side Management were initiated. To reduce the load shedding hours, Mahavitaran implemented two schemes under Demand Side Management namely the Single Phasing Scheme and Gaothan feeder separation. In the Gaothan feeder separation scheme, the agricultural feeders were carved out from the mixed feeders. With this, Mahavitaran could stagger the demand of 2500-3000 MW which helped in load management and in strengthening of infrastructure and reducing losses. Presently, 85% of the State is load shedding free and only 15% of the State is under load shedding. In fact, Mahavitaran is capable enough to fulfill the power demand of this 15% area but these are the areas where the distribution and commercial losses are very high and collection efficiency is less. As a part of the 2 policy and to bring a consumer discipline; Mahavitaran purposely implemented this policy of load shedding. Milestones towards load shedding Free State: November 2008: Load Shedding of district head quarters reduced from 10 pm to 6:30 pm. January 2009: The revenue headquarters like Nagpur, Amravati, Aurangabad, Nashik, Pune, Navi Mumbai were made load shedding free. February 2012: The weekly staggering day of Industries which was there since the formation of the State, was withdrawn and 24X7 power was supplied to them. April 2012: The load shedding of A, B, C category was withdrawn. 66 % of the State i.e. 94 Divisions out of 142 were load-shedding free. 1st October 2012: Load shedding of D Category was withdrawn. January 2013: To give maximum benefits to the consumers, Division wise load shedding was replaced to feeder wise load shedding. Earlier, load shedding was implemented in 133 divisions, but now only 5,532 feeders are under load shedding. Presently, Ag dominated feeders having DCL less than 45% and other feeders having DCL less than 42% are load shedding free. Sources of power and provision till 2020: Mahavitaran gets power from Mahagenco, Central Sector and private projects. Mahavitaran has signed long term agreements of 25 years duration with the power producers to make provision for the required amount of power. From this, Mahavitaran will get 4685 MW in 2014-15; 1294 MW in 2015-16; 1550 MW in 2016-17; 4154 MW in 2017-18; 5323 MW in 2018-19 and 2885 MW in 2019-2020. Infrastructure Plan: To strengthen the distribution network of the State, Mahavitaran implemented the Infrastructure Plan in two phases. In the phase- I of the Infra plan, work of about ? 11,000 Cr were done. Because of this, in the last five years approximately 60 Lakhs new connections were released. This includes, around 45 Lakh residential, 10 Lakh Agricultural, 4 Lakh Commercial and 1 Lakh Industrial Consumers. It has helped to improve the quality of power and services of the company. It enabled the system to carry 20,000 MW of power.3 In the Infrastructure Plan Phase- II, Mahavitaran has planned to incur ? 8304.32 Cr. The details of these two phases are as follows: Infrastructure Plan Phase I: With an aim to provide reliable and quality power to the consumers of the state, Mahavitaran formulated a ? 10,789 Crore infrastructure plan. This plan was implemented between 2008 and 2013. From the formation of the State in the span of 48 years, about 1,770 substations were erected. During the implementation of this plan, Mahavitaran commissioned 910 sub-stations in just 5 years making a total of 2,680. More than 51% of the work is done after the restructuring of the company. Similarly, there is a remarkable growth in the number of distribution transformers after the execution of the Infra Phase I. By the end of 2012-13, the total number of distribution transformers was about 4, 71,766 from 2, 25, 818 which is increased almost 109%. Infra Plan I has been successfully implemented, the major achievements of this plan are: There has been significant reduction in distribution losses. The distribution losses during 2007-08 were 22% which reduced to 14.00 % by the end of March 2014. Improvement and Development of old and worn out distribution system. The transformer failure rate in 2008-09 was around 14.03 % which reduced to 9.18% by the end of March 2014. In 2005-06 the system was able to carry only 10,000 MW of power which has increased to 20,000 MW. Presently, the demand of 16,500 MW of power is fulfilled by Mahavitaran. With the help of the work performed towards the strengthening of the power distribution system, it became easy to release new connections. Between the year 2008-09 and 2012-13, 10.02 lakh new Agricultural connections were released, 44.91 Residential, 3.86 lakh Commercial, 0.80 lakh Industrial and 0.36 lakh others were given new connection making a huge total of 59.95 lakh. Infrastructure Plan Phase - II In the next two years Mahavitaran plans to provide 27.49 lakh Residential, 1.78 Lakh Industrial and 5.44 lakh Agricultural connections with the sum total of 34.06 new connections. With the help of Infra Phase II, Mahavitaran is focusing more on releasing new connections. The Cost of the Project: ? 6,500 Crore + ?1,804.32 Crore for Urban = ?8,304.32 Crore. Human Resource Development: Mahavitaran has 14 Zones, 42 Circles, 133 Divisions and 621 Sub-divisions across the state. Presently, it has 75,370 employees. To make the maximum utilization of these employees for giving better consumer services, Mahavitaran keeps regular training sessions for them. Apart from this, Security Awareness Campaigns are organized for the technicians regularly. Last year, more than thirty thousand employees were trained by Mahavitaran. Transparent Recruitment: After the restructuring, numerous recruitments were done in Mahavitaran. It recruited more than 28,500 people in technical staff and more than 3600 people in Non Technical staff including around 3052 Junior Engineers, 2000 Junior Operators, 1379 Junior Technicians, 7000 Linemans, 2000 Substation Assistants and 1000 Account Assistants. All these recruitments were done in a highly transparent manner. Social Accountability: The primary responsibility of Mahavitaran is to give quality service to its consumers in the State. While performing this duty, Mahavitaran always strives hard to fulfill its role towards social responsibility. To release a single agricultural connection, Mahavitaran has to incur around ? 1.75 Lakh. But Mahavitaran charges a very minimal amount from agricultural consumers. Agricultural consumers were charged ?1. Under the flagship of Govt. of India, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna was started wherein the people Below Poverty Line (BPL) are given connection in only ? 15. Mahavitaran does not charge any amount for Service Connection of S.C. and S.T. consumers. Energization of Agricultural Pumps: Mahavitaran tops in the country for energization of agricultural pumps. It has released connection to around 36, 67,883 Agricultural pumps. Before restructuring of the company, the paid pending list of the Agricultural connections were huge and the annual target of energization of the agricultural pump were about 50-60 thousand but after the restructuring; especially in the last 3-5 years, a large number of Agricultural Pumps were energized. Year-wise Ag Connections Released Sr. No. Year AG Connections Released 1 2005-06 79,466 2 2006-07 1, 22,566 3 2007-08 1,18,076 4 2008-09 1,14, 728 5 2009-10 1,54,415 6 2010-11 3,21,299 7 2011-12 2,52,766 8 2012-13 1,58,237 9 2013-14 1,24,769 Empowering Women Employees: Women Empowerment has always been among the top agendas of Mahavitaran. It has initiated a number of programs to encourage women for being self dependent and believing in her. The ever increasing number of women engineers and Officers in the workforce since its inception; necessitated the thought for women empowerment. A novel idea of formation of all womens squads popularly known as Damini Pathak was implemented. The aim of the exercise is to address the consumer complaints regarding photo meter reading and check meter tampering. Mahavitaran thought to utilize this vast women power by offering the Mahila Bachat Gat across the State to come forward and undertake the work of meter reading of energy meters and distribution of electricity bills. One more step towards women empowerment was initiated by recruiting Mahila Vidyut Sahayak or women line staff in a technical job. These women fearlessly climb the pole and transformers for repairs; carry out theft detection and collect the power dues etc. Mahavitaran recruited 7000 thousand Vidyut Sahayak (line staff) across Maharashtra. Out of these, 2,225 women were selected. Till now this was purely a male dominated field; but for the first time in the history of power sector, Mahavitaran has appointed these Mahila Vidyut Sahayak on such a large scale. A Tejaswini Samiti is formed under the leadership of a very senior lady officer at the Head Office, who ensures the smooth working of these women line staffs. Advanced Facilities for Consumers: Centralised Costumer Care Center: Mahavitaran has prescribed a time limit to resolve the complaints of consumers throughout the State. In case the complaints are not resolved in the predefined time, it is automatically escalated to the next higher authority. For this, Mahavitaran has deployed two well equipped advanced technology based Customer Care Centers. A 60 seated service center at Bhandup whereas an alternative 40 seated center at Pune. At these centers, the complaints of consumers are notified 24x7 and necessary steps are taken to resolve it. The consumers can notify their complaints through any Mobile Service Provider or landline phone on the toll free number 18002333435, 18002003435. All Online Connections- One Page Application: Mahavitaran has introduced many facilities for the consumers to get hassle free new connection. This initiative was taken to make all the applications online, so that the consumers can monitor the status of their application and its execution. To encourage the paperless office drive, Mahavitaran started the Go Green facility for its consumers wherein any consumer subscribing for this facility will get their electricity bills on email and a concession on their bill in lieu. From 1 January 2012, Mahavitaran has provided all the residential, non residential, Industrial, Non Industrial (Commercial) category consumers to avail the facility of one page online application for new connection. The prospective consumer needs to submit limited documents to get a new connection. For address proof, anyone of the documents such as Ration Card, Local Tax Receipt, Driving License, Aadhar card, Election card, Passport or NOC from the owner of the house or 3 months rent receipt will be required. Similarly for identity proof, Election card, Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Driving license, Passport, Photo pass anyone of these will be sufficient. Bill payment facilities: To make the bill payment easy, Mahavitaran has made available many facilities for all LT consumers across the state by commissioning its own Payment Gateway on Mahavitaran website www.mahadiscom.in.Consumers can also receive their monthly bills via email by registering themselves on Mahavitaran website. Mahavitaran has also made arrangement to avail the facility of making easy payment through mobile phones. Mahavitaran has installed ATP machines mostly throughout the state for the convenience of its consumers. With this ATP machine, the consumers can pay 7 their electricity bills round the clock, either by cash or credit card and get a receipt of the paid amount immediately. Breakdown Attending Vans: The industrial consumers in the State are already having 24X7 power supply. Mahavitaran has taken a step forward to ensure uninterrupted supply to the 24 MIDC consumers. Mahavitaran has appointed a dedicated team with well equipped mobile vans for attending the various breakdown related issues in these MIDC areas. This team ensures uninterrupted power supply to industries. The van is well equipped with 30 different tools like Crimping tool, tool box, HT discharge rod, fuse wire and other maintenance materials. Also, a mobile phone is available for contact. The team of experienced technical staff ensures preventive maintenance of the system. They operate 24X7 in 3 shifts and each shift has 7 members in a team. During night hours this team continuously patrols the lines from pole to pole. This maintenance unit is headed and monitored by the concerned sub-division officers. Mahavitarans Initiative recognized by National Award: A variety of innovative and effective activities are implemented by Mahavitaran. These initiatives have been recognized by other State Power utilities and by the Central Power Ministry and also won the National Level Awards. Through the R-APDRP scheme and by employing the State of the art technologies, Mahavitaran is trying to give better services to its consumers. It has also helped significantly in loss reduction. It has implemented innovative governance with the help of Information technology. The Government of Maharashtra felicitated Mahavitaran with the Bronze trophy in 2012-13. Recognition: Honoured with The National Energy Conservation Award 2014organized by the Central Power Ministry for its contribution in the field of energy conservation. Taking a note of the remarkable work done by Mahavitaran in the power sector, the Central Ministry of Power recognized it with the A ranking. Won the 6th Indian Power Award 2013 by the Council of Power Utility, Delhi for the various works done by the Company. With the help of the R-APDRP Scheme, Mahavitaran took various measures to effectively reduce the distribution losses and to give excellent service to its consumers by using sophisticated technologies. With the help of Information Technology, Mahavitaran incorporated innovative ideas in administration. Taking a note of this work, the Maharastra Government recognized Mahavitaran with the bronze medal for the year 2012-2013. Recognized with the Iconic Insight Award orchestrated by the International Data Corporation for best IT based Consumer Services by Mahavitaran The Institution of Engineers also felicitated the Testing division of Nagpur and Aurangabad for the remarkable performance of the Quality and Control department. Bestowed with the Best Employer of the year and Best Organisation and Staff Development by the World HRD Congress 2014. Conferred with the Asia Pacific HRM Award 2014. Won the second place Power Excellence Award-2013 by the Kolkata Chamber of Commerce. Won the Golden Leap Vault Award organized by the Institute of Social Science.