03 / 04 — Visualisation
Rajasthan Discoms — Reading a Tariff Order
One public document, read four ways — who Rajasthan’s three electricity distribution companies sell to, what their power costs to buy, how much is lost on the way, and how the next year’s investment is paid for.
- Category
- Self-directed / Power sector / Public finance
- Place
- Rajasthan
- Role
- Data preparation, analysis and visualisation
- Figures
- 4 charts
Context
Every year the Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission publishes a tariff order for the state’s three distribution companies — Jaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur. It settles what they may charge, and on the way it records who buys their power, where they buy it from, how much never reaches a bill and what they plan to invest. It is a long regulatory document whose tables are rarely read; these charts read five of them.
Role
Data preparation, analysis and visualisation
Read Tables 20, 22, 32–33 and 36–37 of the ARR and Tariff Order for FY 2022-23 (1 September 2022), prepared the data, calculated the average cost of each power source from its total cost and volume, and built the four charts in Flourish.
Process
Almost everything here is approved projection rather than actual outcome, and each chart says so in its note; the losses chart is the exception, setting six years of targets against what happened. Read in order, the pattern holds together: farms take three of every five units Jodhpur sells, solar is cheaper per unit than every thermal source the state buys, only once in six years did any discom meet its loss target, and Jodhpur plans to borrow four of every five rupees it invests.
Who the power is sold to
Agriculture is 59 per cent of Jodhpur’s approved sales, against 35 for Jaipur and 34 for Ajmer.
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What the power costs to buy
Volume against average cost for each source, the bubble sized by total cost. The average cost is calculated, not published.
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What is lost on the way
Distribution losses, energy lost between input and billing — not AT&C losses, which also count unpaid bills. Ajmer in FY 2019-20 is the only year any discom met its target.
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How the investment is paid for
The discoms’ own proposals, not what was approved or spent.
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