Tata Power to hold 51% equity in Odisha’s WESCO, SOUTHCO discoms

Bhubaneswar: Tata Power on Friday announced that it has received the Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) for the distribution and retail supply of electricity in Odisha’s five circles of WESCO and six circles of SOUTHCO.

The five circles of WESCO consist of Rourkela, Burla, Bhawanipatna, Bolangir, Bargargh and six circles of SOUTHCO are Ganjam City, Berhampur, Aksa, Bhanjannagar, Jeypore and Rayagada.

As per conditions of Bid Documentation, Tata Power will hold 51 percent equity with management control and the State-owned GRIDCO will have the remaining 49 percent equity stake in the company, said a statement.

The license enables Tata Power to serve the consumers of Western part (WESCO) and Southern part (SOUTHCO) of Odisha with geographical spread of more than 47,000 Sq km each and will manage network of more than 100,000 ckt. kms. each.

The license period for the two Dstribution Utilities shall be 25 years, the statement said.

While WESCO serves close to 2.0 million consumers with annual input energy of 7520 MUs, SOUTHCO serves close to 2.3 million consumers with annual input energy of 3470 MUs.

With WESCO and SOUTHCO, with the addition of both the discoms, Tata Power’s consumer base will reach 10 million consumers from the present base of 5.7 million across Mumbai, Delhi, Central part of Odisha and Ajmer.

Tata Power is committed to improve and modernise the distribution system in Western and Southern Odisha. The priority of the company is to improve reliability, reduce AT&C losses and offer excellent customer service.

The company will retain all the existing employees of WESCO and SOUTHCO and their service conditions shall continue as per their existing policy structure.

Tata Power will provide better opportunities and facilities to all the employees to update their knowledge and skills along with an exposure to best practices and cutting edge technologies as a part of change management in WESCO and SOUTHCO respectively.

Commenting on this occasion, Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power said, “It is a proud moment for us. We are thankful to the Odisha Government and OERC for giving us this opportunity. We are committed to provide reliable, affordable and quality power supply along with superior customer service, backed by innovative technology. We constantly strive to become the most preferred distribution company in the country. The success of our Delhi, Mumbai and Ajmer Distribution including improvements in Central Odisha in a short span of time is winning the hearts of people of Odisha.”