Survey

Semester I Academic Year 2015/2016

Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons) (Information Systems)

CISB413

Malaysian Power & Electricity Industry

Research Assignment 3: Synergizing

IS/IT with the Electricity Industry

Prepared by,

Ammuthavali Ramasamy

ammutha@uniten.edu.my

Tel: 03-89212312, BW-3-C28

CISB413 Malaysian Power & Electricity Industry

RA 3

Research Assignment 3

Synergizing IS/IT with the Electricity Industry

While India has made impressive progress in the Power Sector since independence, it

has not been sufficient. In terms of generation, while new capacity has been added,

demand has far outstripped the supply leading to a widening gap. The primary reason of

the widening gap lies in the distribution link in the value chain. The generation

companies have not found it easy to recover their dues from their biggest buyers, mainly

the State Electricity Boards (SEBs). SEBs suffers huge financial losses every year due

to power theft and ineffective practices of billing and collection. Apparently, the losses

have reached an alarming USD 4.5B. It is clear that the biggest fundamental issue

hampering the viability of the Indian Power Sector is the sheer volume or level of

Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses that amount to 25%, a very high level by any

standard. To make the matter worse, indirect calculations show T&D losses to be much

higher in the range of 40-50%. In addition, the distribution system in India is often

characterised by inefficiency, low productivity, frequent interruption in supply and poor

voltage.

The Indian Ministry of Power believes evidently, some fundamental changes are

imperative in the working of the power sector. Enabling the core business operation at

the transaction level using Information system (IS) would lay the foundation for

sustainable reforms. The overall quality of data will improve and thereby an overall

improvement in the flow of information for decision support. Information...