The industrial town will be the first in Uttar Pradesh to receive power supply through a franchisee.

The state government has issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) to Torrent Power, which has over 90 years of experience in power generation and distribution in Gujarat.

The company will purchase power from the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) and distribute it to consumers for the next 20 years — on the rates set by the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission.

In Kanpur, the power situation is grim. There are long, unscheduled powercuts and complaints of wrong billing. Torrent will set up a call centre to immediately address the complaints of the consumers. Books on power schedule will also be published and distributed among the consumers. They will detail how much time a redressal takes and how much it costs the consumer, depending on the nature of the complaint.

Before the company starts functioning, a series of conditions are to be fulfilled by both the parties — Kanpur Electricity Supply Company (KESCO) and Torrent Power. “An extensive joint audit of all assets like transformers, lines, meters, customer details, billing system, rates etc will be undertaken before these assets are handed over to the franchisee company,” said Murli Ranganathan, Director of Torrent Power.

The time required to do this will depend on how KESCO has maintained its records, he added.

Kanpur, which at present faces eight hours of powercut daily, has over 40 per cent of transmission and distribution losses. Of the remaining 60 per cent, the collection (bill) efficiency is limited to 80 per cent. This will pose a big challenge for the company.

“Besides, ensuring proper metering, we will invest more capital to reduce technical (broken and worn-out wires) and commercial (theft) losses,” said Ranganathan.

In Gujarat, the company generates and distributes power in Ahmedabad and Surat, where line losses are eight and six per cent respectively and are recognised as the best across the country.

The company has recorded 100 per cent collection efficiency at all places including Ghandinagar, where Torrent is only in distribution.

“In Ahmedabad, we have our own Geeta — the mechanism which has the details of each and every power asset like transformers, lines, consumers, rates, billing, with diagrams and route frequency. But we have no idea how KESCO has maintained its records,” Ranganathan added.