Tata Power secures LoI for Odisha’s WESCO and SOUTHCO discoms

New Delhi: Tata Power, the country’s largest integrated power utility on Friday announced that it had 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 Western Electricity Supply Company of Odisha (WESCO) and six circles of Southern Electricity Supply Company Of Orissa Limited (SOUTHCO).

“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 providing 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,” Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD, Tata Power said in an official statement.

The five circles of WESCO consist of Rourkela, Burla, Bhawanipatna, Bolangir, Bargargh and the six circles of SOUTHCO include 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 Grid Corporation of Odisha (GRIDCO) will have the remaining 49 percent equity stake in the company.

The license enables Tata Power to serve the consumers of WESCO and SOUTHCO with a geographical spread of more than 47,000 square km each and it will manage a network of over 1,00,000 circuit km each, according to the official statement.

The license period for the two distribution utilities shall be 25 years.

“While WESCO serves close to 2 million consumers with annual input energy of 7,520 MUs, SOUTHCO serves close to 2.3 million consumers with annual input energy of 3,470 MUs. With the addition of both these 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,” it stated.

Sinha added that the success of Delhi, Mumbai and Ajmer Distribution including improvements in Central Odisha in a short span of time has won the hearts of the people of Odisha.