NITI Aayog released “Electricity Access in India and Benchmarking Distribution Utilities” report

NITI Aayog released “Electricity Access in India and Benchmarking Distribution Utilities” report

On October 28, 2020, Niti Aayog released the “Electricity access in India and benchmarking distribution utilities” report.

 [hide]

·         Highlights

·         About the survey

·         Key findings

·         Current scenario of India

·         Way forward

Highlights

The report says that 92% of customers received electricity infrastructure within 50 metres of their premises.

Around 87% of the customers had access to grid-based electricity. Reminding 13% were those who either used non grid sources or did not use electricity at all. The majority of the customers using non grid sources were from the agricultural sector. Around 4 percentage of households in India are lagging grid-based electricity sources. The number of hours of electricity supply has been improved in the country. India on an average is receiving 17 hours of electricity per day.  The report was created based on the survey conducted across 10 states that represented is 65% of Indian rural population.

About the survey

The survey focused on good connectivity, access, electricity, customer satisfaction and utilities capacity. The customers included in the survey were from rural households, commercial Enterprises, agriculture and institutions.

Key findings

Uttar Pradesh performed far below then the other utilities according to the report. Around 66% of the surveyed customers were satisfied. According to the report, the improvement in electricity access in the country is mainly due to Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana and Deen Dayal Upadhyay gram Jyoti Yojana.

The report highlighted three key areas such as tariff simplification and rationalization, direct benefit transfer schemes in Punjab and

Current scenario of India

According to the report, India is now one of the leaders in providing electricity access. In the past 20 years the electricity access rate has doubled in India.  The households connected to the electricity grid has increased from 59.4% to 100% in the country. However, the country is still facing challenges to provide reliable and affordable electricity supply.

Way forward

The report suggested that India should focus on sustainability of electricity access and create an action plan to resolve the barriers