Jaipur: The integrity of power sector data in Rajasthan has come under serious question as a growing proportion of defective electricity meters, particularly in the agriculture segment, continues to distort transmission and distribution (T&D) loss figures reported by state discoms. The issue, flagged by the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission in its latest tariff and truing-up orders, reveals how inaccurate metering is skewing both consumption and loss assessments.Distribution losses are calculated as the difference between energy supplied into the system and energy billed to consumers. When meters are defective, actual consumption is not recorded. Instead, discoms rely on estimated or “assessed” consumption, often derived from assumptions or historical benchmarks. This introduces a significant scope for overestimation. Data from FY 2024–25 highlights the scale of the issue. In Jodhpur discom, nearly 50% of agricultural meters, 2.66 lakh out of 5.25 lakh, were reported defective. These defective meters accounted for 10,047 million units (MU) of energy sales, compared to 5,635 MU from working meters.Industry experts said that this consumption attributed to defective meters was nearly 1.8 times higher than that recorded by functional meters, an anomaly that raises serious concerns. They flagged that, although the Commission may take steps to correct this anomaly through its orders, such corrections are limited to regulatory accounting, and the Discoms continue to report these figures in their annual statements and financial submissions.Such inflated assessments directly impact the calculation of Distribution losses. When Discoms overstate consumption through defective meters, the billed energy figure rises artificially. This, in turn, reduces the apparent gap between input energy and billed energy, making T&D losses appear lower than they actually are.A similar pattern is observed in Ajmer Discom, where 19% of meters were defective. These meters contributed disproportionately to reported consumption, again suggesting overestimation. Without precise metering, it becomes difficult to distinguish between actual consumption, technical losses, and commercial losses such as theft or billing inefficiencies.Recognizing this, the Commission has taken corrective steps by recalibrating energy sales using normative benchmarks based on working meters. As a result, large volumes of claimed consumption have been disallowed, 1,483.55 MU in Jodhpur and 810.93 MU in Ajmer, thereby correcting inflated figures that had understated losses.
