Reeling under a severe power crisis, the Delhi government recently ordered all shops in the capital to pull down shutters by 7:30 pm, and compulsorily close their establishments once a week. However, in the face of a stir by traders and consumers, the government revoked its order subsequently. It, however, did admit that the national capital was facing a severe power shortage. Not only Delhi, most states across the country are in a midst of a similar crisis.

Behind the 'big' power shortage is the high volume of transmission and distribution (T&D) losses that amounts to 25%, a very high level by any standard. Analysts put T&D losses in the range of 40-50%. In addition, the power distribution system in India is marred by inefficiency, low productivity, frequent interruption in supply and poor voltage.

Some fundamental changes are imperative in the working of the power sector entities so as to realize the vision of "reliable, affordable, and quality power for all by 2012". The reform process is in progress in several states under the overall guidance of the Union Ministry of Power (MoP). IT is expected to become the key enabler in the initiatives under the reform process. It would act as a catalyst by providing the infrastructure essential to the reform process and practices. With a view to use IT as a strategy to improve commercial and operational performance in distribution and for its effective implementation, the MoP had set up an IT Task Force in 2005 for the power sector under the chairmanship of Infosys CEO, Nandan Nilekani.

The figure provides an indicative roadmap for applications under the four categories. The arrows indicate the direction to be followed along the two dimensions – time and extent of deployment in the geography. 1. The classification is done for a typical SEB and some SEBs could move faster on the implementation of these applications 2. The specific scope or implementation approach for each SEB has to be decided on a case-to-case basis 3. An integrated financial and costing backbone is a key area to support all the other applications that would be taken up in the future

IT Roadmap
The task force recommends the creation of a comprehensive IT blueprint for the power sector that incorporates the global best practices. The report provides a framework for its creation. The task force suggests a three to five year IT implementation roadmap with both short- and long-term IT initiatives. For short-term IT interventions, priority should be given to the use of IT in commercial processes and in improving the quality of supply in selected high revenue areas. The key objective of the IT solution should be to minimize human interface in commercial processes to avoid human errors and chances of willful mistakes. Having started on the short-term quick win areas, long-term areas would cover business processes.

For instance, billing would be expanded to cover all customer types and grow into a comprehensive customer information system (CIS) and gradually the sophisticated call center functionality would be added. Service connection and maintenance processes would be systemized and integrated with this CIS. Asset and work management, outage management and distribution automation would be implemented in parallel. Material management and support processes (such as HR, Finance, Accounts, etc.) would be IT enabled in this phase. The task force also felt that SEBs should have an effective Management Information System (MIS) for decision support and improved decision-making.

This report also deals with different funding models for IT implementation that are critical requirements to enable successful deployment of the recommendations of the task force. For implementation of IT initiatives, SEBs have to look at various business models. It would be difficult for an SEB to implement these initiatives based on a single 'project model'. The task force also recommends that SEBs/utilities should be facilitated in the process of selection of solution providers through an accreditation policy at the national level. A committee of experts in the field of technical, commercial, finance, and project management may be constituted in consultation with NASSCOM to accredit various agencies to take up implementation.

As electricity distribution is the weakest link in the power sector value chain in India, it is the focus of the task force. The objective of the task force is to prepare a report defining the role of IT in various aspects of distribution.

Given the enormous magnitude of the effort involved and the long timeline in the implementation of IT roadmap, there is a clear need to divide the entire implementation into phases. The approach to phasing would be to derive maximum returns from investments that would mean prioritizing the initiatives in order of RoI and picking the top ones to start with. This would also provide the quick wins essential for the long-term success of the program.

The task force suggests a three to five year IT implementation roadmap with short-term and long-term IT initiatives. The IT applications have been divided into the following four categories:

• Prerequisites-To be established first to allow implementation of subsequent IT applications

• Short-term-Quick wins

• Medium-term-High return

• Advanced applications

IT Status in Power
The operation of distribution businesses in the utility sector are characterized by manual and cumbersome processes, inadequate controls, insufficient commercial focus, limited transparency, and lack of reliable information. As a result, the operations are highly inefficient with substantial revenue leakages and poor customer orientation.

The use of IT has been low and has been restricted to certain pockets. The several standalone applications have limited ability to effectively interface and integrate either with other applications or with potential applications to be deployed in the future. Although the level of deployment of IT varies significantly across the utilities; the key applications have been in multilevel aggregation of data or large-scale data processing.

Major organizations including SEBs have considered IT and have made some use of it.

The task force feels that the implementation of IT initiatives, though not an easy task, will result in better reliability and quality of supply, increased productivity, reduced technical and commercial losses, higher customer satisfaction and a fundamental change in the work culture.

The computerised system will revolutionise the way utilities conduct their business by reducing operating cost, improving customer service and increasing employee efficiency.

-Rajneesh De

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