Questions/Answers

Electricity has emerged as one of the most important commodity in the recent times. Whenever there is a power cut, normal routine of any household/ business is severely affected and they feel crippled. Upon interactions with the consumers, it is understood that one of the major reason for consumer dissatisfaction is:  Untimely Power Rostering/ shut downs  No prior Information on the same, leading to law & order issues Hence, Urja Mitra was conceived as a comprehensive system based on below objectives: a. Direct Government-citizen engagement on power scenario b. Prior Power Outage information to consumers at their doorsteps c. Use of a low cost, Technology based solution to reach out to vast 1.25 billion population (25 million power consuming households) , spread across 35 States/Union territories , speaking varied Languages, almost 25% of them living Below Poverty Line. d. Providing Interactive platform for Consumers-government officials on power outages e. Enhanced Consumer satisfaction

1. Promotes Inclusive Growth & Equality within Society: It provides free of cost advanced vernacular power outage information at consumers’ doorsteps without any discrimination based on economic status, gender, cast, creed, region or type of consumer thereby promoting inclusive growth. Hence, it emerges as a system promoting equality within society. 2. Enhanced transparency and accountability of Government: With the availability of the power outage information across the nation available on a single platform, the level of transparency & accountability in power sector has increased manifolds. Concerned district administration, power companies and State/ Central Government are bound to take prompt corrective action and this has set in new standards of accountability in power sector.

By providing advanced power outage information to all the Citizens of the Country, it ensures better planning of domestic, educational, agrarian & industrial activities. Also, since the reach to information is free for all – irrespective of economic status, gender, caste or creed and in vernacular, the SDGs of Gender Equality, Reduced Inequalities and Justice & Strong Institution are adequately addressed. Hence, not only the primary SDG of “Affordable & Clean Energy” but many other SDGs are adequately implemented through Urja Mitra initiative.

Prior to Urja Mitra initiative, erratic power supply and lack of prior information on power outages were causing public discontent and associated law and order problems. Also, only few influential, high load urban consumers had prior access to power outage information and mass at large, especially in rural areas, was unaware and had to suffer immensely. Urja Mitra addresses the power problems using three strategies: 1. Proactive Model: It is a proactive ecosystem of engagement with citizens where through a central web platform (www.urjamitra.com) & mobile app, electricity outage duration/cause information is automatically disseminated to the urban/rural citizens through vernacular SMS/ email/ push notification on their mobile phones. 2. Interactive Model: It is a two-way model where not only officials but citizens can also inform about the power related problem through Mobile App on click of a button. 3. Reactive Model: Any issue/ power outage complaint, gets automatically redirected to the concerned field staff for timely resolution. Combining these three strategies & with high mobile penetration in India, Urja Mitra caters to electricity outage information needs of all categories of power consumers of the country without any discrimination in vernacular languages. The mobile app is available in 6 vernacular languages apart from English. Also, availability of electricity outage information across nation on a single platform, has increased the level of transparency & accountability in administration with officials bound to take prompt corrective action in case of power outages.

Though the Indian Government has set in ambitious target of “24X7 Power for All”, providing electricity access to 1.25 Billion Indians and ensuring its reliability is still a challenge with lot of power outages happening due to unforeseen reasons and sometimes even resulting into Law & Order problems. Also, in a country of varied diversity as India, inclusive development in any Government program is the biggest challenge. In this context, Urja Mitra is a pioneer end to end Power Outage Management Ecosystem which keeps consumers at the center of power delivery system. All electricity outage related information is now available automatically to all categories of Citizens on their Mobile Phone/ Web Portal in vernacular SMS/ push notifications, ensuring better growth, planned power scenario and inclusive development in Indian context.

Urja Mitra innovation is original and was initially implemented in one of the power company of the Country - Kanpur Electricity Supply Company Limited (KESCo), State of Uttar Pradesh, with a consumer base of around 0.5 million consumers. Subsequently, others joined up. It redefines the engagement of Citizens with Government under condition of power outages in an innovative ways: a. It is a pioneer end to end outage management ecosystem which keeps citizens at the centre of Power Delivery System i.e. citizens need not to gather power cut related information, same is available to them in an automated manner. b. Uses integration of existing IT infrastructure to track the power outage, right from its occurrence to its timely restoration.

The Urja Mitra initiative was initially implemented in one of the power company of the Country - Kanpur Electricity Supply Company Limited (KESCo), State of Uttar Pradesh, with a consumer base of around 0.5 million consumers. Subsequently, Ghaziabad District of Uttar Pradesh State joined this initiative. Since, Urja Mitra is based on a simple central web platform, more & more Districts, power companies have joined the initiative to interact with the consumers of their area. Due to the ease/ scalability inherent in it, at present, 51 power companies of 28 States of India have joined this initiative to reach out to around 170 Million electricity connection holders meaning thereby impacting lives of minimum 500 Million Citizens of the Country. Till date, more than 900 Million SMS have been shared with the Citizens.

Urja Mitra is a very low cost initiative and total estimated cost is around USD 3 Million which includes following cost components: • Web Portal/ Mobile App development • Cloud Hosting Charges • SMS charges & • Manpower cost Besides this, all Districts/ States/ Power Companies are using their existing manpower to operate the system on day to day basis. Being a citizen centric initiative, the initiative is completely funded from Government of India and absolutely free of cost to States/ districts/ power companies and citizens of India.

Urja Mitra is a sustainable initiative in many ways: 1. Inbuilt Consumer Demand/ Consumer Driven: Urja Mitra has inbuilt consumer driven sustainability. As more and more consumers are getting benefitted from this initiative, power companies cannot manage to discontinue these services as any interruption would cause great consumer dissatisfaction and dent the image of district/ State administration. 2. Financially Sustainable: Cost of system is minimal compared to its advantages making it highly sustainable. Also, it is completely funded by the Central Government to ensure no cost is incurred by district administration, power companies and State Government. 3. Economic benefit to the Power companies & Government: With the Urja Mitra application, the satisfaction level of the consumer has increased resulting into timely payment of due bills. This has improved the financial health of the Power sector. Law & Order issues during power cut have also reduced and with no harm done to Sub-station property, there is financial/ resource saving for Power companies. This very advantage will prove to be a strong pillar in the sustainability of this initiative.

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A formal evaluation of the initiative has been done internally as well as externally by reputed agencies like CRISIL, PRAYAS Group, IMT Ghaziabad, NIT Meghalaya. For evaluation, sample set of consumers were chosen and feedback has been gathered from them over telephone/ written surveys/ field visits to assess the impact and system also has been studied & analyzed in detail. The initiative has also been widely covered in social media/print/electronic media. It was widely covered and appreciated in a documentary, “Katiyabaaz-Powerless”, which was screened in all International/national film festivals and got National Film award for Best investigative film.

The indicators that were used for impact assessment are as follows: 1. Awareness amongst Citizens about the Initiative 2. Improvement in Availability/ Reliability of Power 3. Frequency of occurrence of power related law and order issues 4. Impact on payment of electricity dues 5. Feedback on Government – Consumer/ Citizen relation from all stakeholders

As per the evaluation reports, Urja Mitra has played a transformatory impact not only in Indian power sector but also yielded commendable outcomes for society as a whole. Few of mentioned outcomes are: 1. Inclusive & Equitable Service for All: Adequately addressed issues of inclusive growth by providing free of cost power outage information in vernacular languages to all kinds of consumers without any discrimination 2. Psychological relief, enhanced satisfaction and Better work planning for Citizens: with the availability of power outage information at their fingertips 3. Transparency & Accountability in public services has increased manifold with availability of power outage information across Nation on a single platform making Government more accountable 4. Better Citizen-Government connect 5. Better financial health of power companies due to timely payment of electricity dues

1. REC Limited (a Government of India enterprise under administrative control of Ministry of Power) • Conceptualised scheme to address the existing problem • Stakeholders consultation • Designed IT solution so as to ensure forward/ backward linkages with existing IT infrastructure • Integrating with existing systems in Power companies • Deployment of the system • Support to the Districts & Power companies in implementation through training, monitoring & workshops 2. District Administration Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh State) • Conceptualised scheme to address the existing problem • Stakeholders consultation • Actual implementation in the field & lead in scaling up across nation 3. Government of India • Initiative being funded and monitored by Central Government of India. 4. Power Companies of Country • Actual implementation in field by uploading information on system • Monitoring every power outage • Keep the Citizens database updated • Effective redressal of consumer complaints 5. Civil servants • Ms. Ritu Maheshwari, a career Civil servant, currently District Magistrate Ghaziabad and earlier Executive Director, RECL, played a crucial role in design/ conceptualisation/ implementation/ rollout of this initiative. She leveraged her experiences from a similar Utility level initiative innovated by her and developed it into a pan-India power outage notification system. 6. Citizens • Providing feedback on scheme for corrective action 7. NGOs • Spreading awareness to the consumers

1. Direct Benefit to end user: Any scheme should directly impact the end user for its success. 2. Proactive citizen engagement: Any initiative must proactively reach and include the citizens instead of citizens reaching to the initiative. 3. Technology driven & free from biases on basis of caste, gender etc.: Any new initiative must maximise the use of the technology and be free from biases based on gender, cast, creed, color, religion etc. 4. Use of vernacular Language: For any initiative that has to connect with the length and breadth of the country, local language is also of utmost importance.