CHENNAI: The financial turnaround by Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) has become a model for other power distribution companies across India to follow, the Centre believes.At Union power minister Piyush Goyal's request, Tangedco chairman M Saikumar provided the Centre and Power Finance Corporation ( PWC ) details of the steps the utility took to cut losses. They will be presented at a meeting of discom chairmen and secretaries in New Delhi on Saturday.Tangedco's losses started to shrink even before it joined the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (Uday) scheme. Now that Tangedco is part of the scheme, its officials hope to post a profit of 2,000 crore in 2017-18."The Union power minister asked us to show others how we were able to achieve the turnaround," a senior Tangedco official told TOI on Friday. "We sent a document with details to PWC, which will make a presentation to all discom chairmen and secretaries at the meeting on Saturday."Officials said the Union power ministry called the meeting to discuss the energy situation in all states as well as the status of Uday. The ministry has been holding such meetings in New Delhi around once in two months.Tangdeco's turnaround came in large part from cost-cutting measures and its decision to stop purchase of power from companies that had marked up costs."By halting power purchase from high-cost companies, we saved no less than 2,425 crore per annum," the official said. "The state has also added 10,496mw of power generation through thermal and hydro units."As power supply increased, Tangedco withdrew restriction and control measures for industrial and commercial categories of consumers, he said. "Due to this, revenue increased by 3,450 crore in 2015-16," the official said. "During this time - in December 2014 - the government also revised the tariff and this helped Tangedco increase its revenue," he added.The average tariff revision on all categories of consumers increased the utility's revenue by 6,450 crore."With the introduction of static meters, Tangedco's assessment of consumption became more effective and accurate and its power sale revenue increased by 15%," the official said.The discom also stopped the use of imported coal and saved approximately 400 crore through this.

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