AVAILABILITY AND QUALITY OF POWER SUPPLY – EQ

In Short : Availability and quality of power supply are critical for economic growth, industrial productivity, and daily life. Reliable electricity ensures uninterrupted operations, while good power quality maintains voltage stability and frequency control. Utilities focus on strengthening transmission networks, improving grid management, and integrating modern technologies to deliver consistent, efficient, and high-quality electricity to consumers across residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.

In Detail : There is adequate availability of power in the country. Present installed generation capacity of the country is 520.51 GW (as on January, 2026). Government of India has addressed the critical issue of power deficiency by adding 296.388 GW of fresh generation capacity since April, 2014 transforming the country from power deficit to power sufficient.

The Power Supply Position for last three financial years and the current financial year i.e. 2025-26 (up to January, 2026) is given at Annexure. The ‘Energy Supplied’ has been commensurate to the ‘Energy Requirement’ with only a marginal gap which is generally on account of constraints in the State transmission / distribution network.

Further, Electricity being a concurrent subject, the supply and distribution of electricity to the various categories of consumers / areas / districts / cities in a State / UT is within the purview of the respective State Government / Power Utility. Making arrangement of appropriate quantum of power from various sources for providing adequate power to all consumers / areas / districts / cities is the responsibility of the concerned distribution licensees.

Government of India (GoI) launched the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) in July 2021 with the objective of improving the quality and reliability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient distribution Sector.

A key objective of the RDSS is to reduce the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses to pan-India levels of 12-15 % and the gap between Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and Average Revenue Realized (ARR) to Zero. To achieve this objective, works amounting to Rs 1.53 Lakh Crores for strengthening of Distribution Infrastructure and Rs 1.3 lakh Crores for smart metering have been sanctioned under the scheme based on the proposals submitted by States.

The following works to strengthen the distribution network have been sanctioned under the scheme:

• Works for creation of new substations/upgradation of substations
• Installation of new Distribution Transformers (DTs) and augmentation of existing DTs
• Replacement of old conductors
• Undergrounding of HT/LT lines
• Segregation of agricultural feeders

Further, smart metering works help improve the collection efficiency of Distribution utilities while providing benefits like automatic energy accounting, improved load forecasting and facilitating an enabling ecosystem for energy transition. Pre-paid smart metering works covering 19.79 crore consumers and smart system metering works for 2.11 lakh feeders and 52.53 lakh DTs have been sanctioned under the scheme. Till date, 4.55 crore smart meters have been installed under RDSS, and overall, 5.97 crore smart meters have been installed across the country under various schemes

For the State of Assam projects worth Rs. 3,395 crores for loss reduction infrastructure works and Rs. 4,050 crores for smart metering works have been sanctioned under the scheme. For the State of Assam, 64.45 lakh smart meters have been sanctioned as part of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), out of which 50.36 lakh smart meters have been installed as on 28th February, 2026 under the scheme.

The release of funds under the scheme is contingent on improvement in operational and financial performance of the utilities which, in addition to the above initiatives taken by GoI, has helped in bringing discipline in payment of Government subsidies and Govt. department dues to the utilities, regular issuance of tariff orders, timely publishing of accounts, non-creation of regulatory assets, etc.

With concerted efforts of Central and State Governments, the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses at national level have reduced from 21.91% in FY21 to 15.04% in FY25 while the national Average Cost of Supply – Average Revenue Realized (ACS-ARR) gap has reduced from Rs. 0.69/kWh to Rs. 0.06/kWh. These collective efforts have also resulted in DISCOMs achieving a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 2,701 crore for the first time.

Assam power Distribution Company limited (APDCL) has bought down the AT&C losses from 18.55 % in FY 2020-21 to 15.44 % in FY 2024-25 and reduced the ACS-ARR gap from 0.32 in FY 2020-21 to (0.26) in FY 2024-25.

ANNEXURE

Details of all India Power Supply Position in the country in terms of Energy during the last three financial years and current financial year 2025-26 (up to January, 2026):

This information was given by The Minister of State in the Ministry of Power, Shri Shripad Naik, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.