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After successfully steering one of the discoms in Odisha under the distribution franchise model, Feedback Energy Distribution Company Ltd (Fedco) has recently signed up with three discoms in Madhya Pradesh as management operator and is eyeing more such opportunities, including in Uttar Pradesh.
What started as a consultancy to shore up discom performance and revenues, for Fedco, a 100 per cent subsidiary of power distribution company Feedback Infra, managing the performance of state power discoms has become a potential business.
Growth potentialDevtosh Chaturvedi, Managing Director of Fedco, said, “We have the potential to grow into a bigger business with more states, including Uttar Pradesh, offering management of discoms.”
“Reduction of human intervention by using technology in day-to-day management, enhancing customer satisfaction, and improving collections have a made a difference,” he told BusinessLine during a recent interaction.
Role for women SHGs“Most discoms are wary of the challenges in collection of dues in rural areas. We have managed to engage the services of women self-help groups in collection of bills. They get commission for it,” he said.
Following the company’s engagement with the Odisha government-owned Central Electricity Supply Utility, Fedco added five discoms in Madhya Pradesh and is also in the process of evaluating some more discoms in other states.
In the past few years since managing CESU, Fedco has increased collection from ₹200 crore to over ₹400 crore a year. This is a predominantly a rural utility with only 10 per cent area in urban segments.
Better servicesThe MO model is a derivative of the distribution franchisee model of public private partnership (PPP) in electricity distribution. This model aims to provide better consumer services and improve the financial health of discoms. This was achieved through installation of meters, efficient revenue collection and by bringing down distribution losses.
“The model we adopted in Odisha has worked well where we have managed to turn the discom around by bringing about efficienct and cutting down on losses, improving overall revenues. This model is replicable,” Chaturvedi said.
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