Mission 2012: Power for all

bellary: though the installed capacity has gone up to 1 lakh mw, several villages in the country still do not have electricity, admitted u.r. maiya, chief manager, power grid corporation of india ltd., munirabad sub station, guladahalli. as many as 80,000 villages are deprived of power. he told the times of india that the power grid would add another 1 lakh mw to bridge the demand-supply gap, which is likely by 2012.the power ministry has developed appropriate strategies to address critical issues in the power sector, he said. the issues dogging power sector are: inadequate power generation capacity, lack of optimum utilisation of existing generation capacity, inadequate inter-regional transmission links, inadequate and ageing sub-transmission and distribution networks leading to local failures, skewed tariff structure, inadequate progress on the rural electrification front, inefficient use of electricity by the end consumer and lack of grid discipline. according to maiya, inadequate investment on transmission and distribution infrastructure has resulted in power evacuation constraints from generating stations. to overcome the problem, a perspective plan has been developed to enable 30,000 mw inter-regional transmission capability by 2012 from the existing 4,800 mw. this capability will lead to the formation of a national grid. there is a tendency among state utilities to overdraw both active and reactive power from grid, resulting in low frequency and low voltage condition and the possibility of grid collapse. the core sector of reforms would deal with state electricity boards (seb), which could be related to poor performance on the distribution front. out of the total energy generated, only 55 per cent is billed, and just 41 per cent realised. during 2000-2001, the average cost of supply was 304 paise per unit and the average revenue 212 paise, thus losing 92 paise on each unit generated. the annual losses of sebs have been put at rs 26,000 crore, which is equivalent to generating 6,000 mw of power. interestingly, loss due to power theft in 2000-2001 is just rs 20,000. the transmission and distribution losses (average) of sebs are 45 per cent, of which 15 per cent is technical loss and 30 per cent due to theft. this has also resulted in improper payment to central sector utilities, whose growth and performance have been affected. maiya said to rectify the situation, the power ministry has identified some strategies. they are: * development of district-level distribution improvement plans/ projects. * setting up district-level energy committees for monitoring and resource planning. * development of distribution circles as centres of excellence, funds for which will be provided by the centre under accelerated power development programme. * 100 per cent metering and effective management information system for monitoring 11 kv feeder levels, to bring accountability. * taking high voltage lines up to load centres to reduce losses. * privatisation/corporatisation of distribution; and * tariff realisation by serc. maiya said the ministry is seeking opinions of various stakeholders through international conferences-cum-business meets.