State Principal Secretary Energy Sanjay Dubey said charging of electric vehicles is new challenge.

The demand for electricity is increasing due to the rise in number of electric vehicles in the state as these vehicles takes long hours for charging, he said.

This is a new challenge for the power distribution companies, he said.

Cases of electrical irregularities are coming to the fore in the charging of electric vehicles, which will have to be monitored by the field engineers of power distribution companies, he said.

He gave presentation in the Manthan 2022 on various issues on gross technical and commercial losses, (AT&C losses), difference in annual revenue requirement and revenue receipts, over-dependence on subsidies, mixed feeders, energy accounting, power theft, hooking, tampering with meters and overloaded infrastructure are the current challenges of the power distribution companies.

Problems of distribution will be solved with smart meter and DBT, he said.

He said with smart meter and DBT (Direct Bank Transfer of Subsidy) problems of distribution sector of the state will be solved to a great extent.

He described performance based funding, prepaid metering, more use of power based home appliances and farmers taking third crop as the future challenges for the power companies.

New connections should be given in seven days as per rules, he said.

He clearly said the power connections should be given to new electricity consumers expeditiously within seven days as per norms.

He said accurate metering and every unit of consumer consumption is important.

In his presentation, Dubey called upon the distribution companies to achieve the target of consumer and transformer indexing quickly with accuracy.

He asked to replace the overloaded and faulty transformers immediately and install high capacity transformers in their place.

Dubey said that prompt resolution of complaints of CM Helpline and Call Center is necessary.

The three-day ‘Manthan-2022’ focused on the ‘introspection’ of the engineers and employees of all the state owned power companies of Madhya Pradesh commenced today in Jabalpur, the headquarters of the power companies.