NT Reporter
Panaji
With power requirements in the state growing by 5 per cent annually, Goa faces a demand-supply gap of 47.9 MW this year (2025-26), that over the years will increase to 192.58 MW by 2029-30, said the Joint Electricity Regulatory
Commission (JERC).
The JERC has directed the electricity department to take all the necessary measures to ensure round the clock, uninterrupted and reliable power supply to consumers.
“The electricity department should proactively bridge the power gap through short-term power procurement, bilateral arrangements or spot market purchases to optimise its power purchase cost and maintain supply reliability,” said the JERC while approving the five-year business plan (2025-26 to 2029-30) of the electricity department.
Furthermore the JERC has approved lower capital expenditure than projected by the state.
“The projected capital expenditure each year should be commensurate with the load growth, transmission loss reduction trajectory and quality improvement measures,” said the JERC in its approval order.
The order has asked the department to obtain capex approval separately for each works by filing separate petitions along with a detailed project report justifying the capex and cost-benefit analysis.
“The electricity department’s capex projects are above the threshold level,” the JERC said.
Based on the future power demand of the state, the JERC has anticipated Goa’s energy requirements at 6,442.76 million units in 2025-26, that will increase to 7,089.99 MU in 2026-27, followed by 7,816.5 MU in 2027-28, and from 8,643.86 MU in 2028-29 to 9,583.35 MU in 2029-30.
As per the approved business plan, the electricity department’s net energy sales over the next five years are projected to increase from 5,219.9 million units (MU) in 2024-25, to 5,735.14 this year, and reach 8,562.96 MU by 2029-30.
The state, which presently has 7,58,895 power consumers, will have 9,33,490 consumers by 2029-30.
Taking an optimistic view of the department’s ability to cut down transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, the JERC has expected T&D losses to gradually come down from 7.95 per cent in 2024-25 to 7.7 per cent by 2029.30.
Likewise the collection efficiency of the department, which is pegged at 100 per cent presently, is projected to be maintained at 100 per cent for the next five years.
In the case of the inter-state transmission losses, the regulator has observed that the department’s estimation are on the higher side ,and accordingly pegged ISTS at an uniform 3.5 per cent over the next five years.
The electricity department had submitted two petitions – the business plan and the tariff petition – for approval, of which the JERC approved the petition for the business plan.
