Year End Review 2004
Priority to the development of power infrastructure has been
the focus for the Government in the year 2004. The Central sector outlay which
during the IXth Five Year Plan was about 40,000 crore was enhanced substantially
to Rs.1,43,000 crore representing an increase of over 214 per cent over the
9th Plan. Realizing the requirement of extending generation capacity,
it was decided to add 41,000 MW in 10th Five Year Plan. This would
be almost double the capacity added in the 9th Five Year Plan. Out
of this 41,000 MW capacity, only 7,000 MW is targeted to be achieved in private
sector which goes to indicate that much higher public investment is envisaged
in electricity sector. For realization of the capacity addition of the 10th
Plan, Weekly Monitoring Programme has been put in place in respect of the Projects.
A capacity to the tune of 1023 MW in thermal and 125 MW in
hydro has been added in the last six months. Generation capacity added during
this period includes Central Sector Projects of 500 MW (Unit-5 of Talcher STPP
Stage-II of NTPC) which was synchronized on 13.05.2004 and one 125 MW unit of
Indrasagar of NHDC and 500 MW of Ramagundam.
50,000 MW Hydro initiative – Pre-feasibility reports in respect
of the 162 hydro-electric schemes totaling 50,000 MW from out of the estimated
1.5 lakhs MW of hydro electric potential have been completed during this period.
Out of these, 73 schemes, aggregating to a capacity of about 33,000 MW with
indicative first year tariffs below Rs.2.50 per KWH, have been identified for
preparation of detailed project reports. These projects are likely to come up
in the XIth Plan and beyond.
1,00,000 MW Thermal initiative – Keeping in view the requirement
of power in the XIth Plan and beyond, it is proposed to prepare a shelf of projects
for setting up of thermal plants at various feasible sites with all inputs/statutory
clearances for speedy implementation.
Out of the targeted capacity addition of 41,000 MW in the Xth
Plan 7,458 MW has already been commissioned, 27,112 MW is under execution and
balance is under various stages of approval. In addition, about 3,000 MW is
expected to be added through the non-conventional energy sources and small hydro.
There is also likelihood of a capacity of about 3,000 MW being added based on
gas from the Krishna Godavari Basin.
Household rural electrification was also a thrust area in the
last seven months. A comprehensive programme is on the anvil to cover all the
unelectrified villages and rural households within a span of five years. At
present, more than 1,15,000 villages are unelectrified as per the new definition
of village electrification. Only 44 per cent of rural households have access
to electricity. The new rural electrification programme will be achieved by
creating Rural Electricity Distribution Backbone up to the level of 33/11 KV
sub-stations, with at least one such sub-station in each block.
Subsequently, all Rural Households (approx. 7.8 crores) would
be provided access to electricity by providing at least one distribution transformer
of appropriate capacity in each village.
The villages which cannot be connected through grid extension,
would be covered through Decentralized Distributed Generation, depending upon
techno-commercial viability. The Government will promote and support the use
of economically viable technologies for stand-alone systems as complement to
grid extension.
Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) would be lead agency
of this new electrification programme. The overall fund requirement would be
Rs. 17,000 crore of which Rs,10,000 crore will be required in the remaining
3 years of the 10th Plan and Rs.7,000 crore in the first two years
of the XIth Plan.
As far as distribution reforms are concerned, the Ministry
of Power has formulated a six-level intervention strategy for distribution reforms.
The new interventions are aimed at ensuring accountability, deliverability and
performance at all levels. The measures are to be at the National, State, SEB,
distribution, feeder and consumer levels. The Power Ministry is also implementing
the Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP) under which
states are given assistance for strengthening and upgradation of sub-transmission
and distribution systems. The main objectives of the programme are:
1. Reduction of AT&C losses to around 15% in five years.
2. Improvement in quality of supply and reliability
of power supply by way of reduction in outages.
3. Improvement in commercial viability of the distribution
sector by increasing collection efficiency.
4. Improvement in consumer satisfaction.
The programme has two components:
(a) Investment component: Central Government provides
assistance to the tune of 50% of the project cost for the upgradation
and strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution system. The focus
is on high-density load centers like towns and industrial areas.
(b) Incentive component: This component is to motivate
the SEBs/utilities to reduce their cash losses. Funds are released to
the SEBs for actual cash loss reduction, for every Rs.2 of cash loss
reduction Rs.1 is given as grant. The funding under incentive component
is in form of 100% grant. The cash losses are calculated net of subsidy
and receivables. The year 2000-01 has been adopted as the base year.
Under this programme, Rs.4112 crore has been released under
the investment component. An amount of Rs. 956 crore was released as incentive
for reduction in cash loss to the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan,
Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
The Ministry of Power during the year has also launched a National
campaign for energy conservation. Through this campaign, the Power Ministry
hopes to save energy by making people aware of the need for conserving electricity.
The Power Ministry has also initiated several other steps
to make the Power Sector competitive and viable. These include, signing of Memoranda
of Agreement with State Governments promising support of the Centre to the states
progressing satisfactorily on agreed reforms agenda. Other steps include guidelines
for tariff determination by Regulatory Commissions, periodical ratings of State
Power Utilities, transparent policy regarding subsidies and development of a
National grid.