Concepts and Principles of Distribution Losses

You are well aware of the fact that all energy supplied to a distribution utility does not reach the end consumers. A substantial amount of energy is lost in the distribution system by way of technical and non-technical losses. In addition, shutdowns and breakdowns in the system also prevent the delivery of energy to end consumers causing revenue loss. Successful distribution companies manage revenue by minimizing loss and maximizing energy delivery to end consumers.

The distribution system accounts for highest technical and non-technical losses in the power sector. The endeavour of a power distribution utility should be to reduce revenue leakages by eliminating causes of non-technical losses and by minimizing technical losses. In this Unit, you will study about the concepts of Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses and Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) Losses. You will also learn about the points at which technical and commercial losses take place in the power distribution system. We also describe the factors causing high losses in our system and ways of computing these losses. Finally, we shall describe the target level of losses in our system. In the next unit, we discuss the measures that should be taken for technical loss reduction.