By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The state cabinet on Friday approved a new action plan to improve the overall performance of the loss-making Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd (UPCL), the sole power distribution company in the hill state.
The plan was presented by the state energy department on the road map prepared by the global consultancy firm McKinsey to strengthen the financial and operational performance of the UPCL which is under heavy losses since its inception in the year 2000. This is the first time that the government has kept such action plan on the UPCL in public domain, experts said.
The plan aims to reduce distribution and transmission losses, optimize power purchase costs and strengthen the company’s performance through capital investments. The transformation plan will ensure the financial stability of the UPCL and establish it as an efficient and profitable organization.
The plan has four major objectives. Firstly, to stabilize and strengthen the financial position of the UPCL, which focuses on reducing its outstanding dues of about Rs 5,000 crore and eliminating the continuous losses incurred in the last six years.
The second objective is to reduce distribution and transmission losses, which are currently high in areas like Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar. It will focus on reducing losses by increasing energy efficiency and upgrading infrastructure.
Thirdly, it was also decided to improve consumer consumers’ satisfaction and bill collection.
Finally, the stress will be given to promote the use of green energy sources, which will provide cost-effective and environment-friendly energy solutions.
“All these objectives will help in making the UPCL a reliable and efficient pillar of the energy sector,” a top official said.
In the past, the UPCL Managing Director Anil Yadav has been stressing for increasing revenue collections and operational efficiency of the power utility.
Yadav has already directed all the regional units to work in high alert mode to maintain uninterrupted power supply. He directed all the officers to ensure the efficiency of distribution system and transformers of their respective areas and reduce their losses.
The Managing Director directed all the officers to ensure 100 percent bill recovery against the revenue targets and organize camps in all the sub-divisions and publicize it.