Why we will continue to remain powerless For over a decade, govt has missed targets for increasing power generation

Why we will continue to remain powerless

For over a decade, govt has missed targets for increasing power generation

More than 600 million people suffered silently a couple of weeks ago as 22 states went without power. For a while, news channels kept harping that Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana had withdrawn excess power from the national grid resulting in the power cut. The state governments rubbished the idea. As the blame game continued, foreign media termed it the “world’s worst blackout”. Now that things are back to normal, DNA digs deep to find out who was or is at fault. For over a decade, the government has consistently missed targets for increasing power generation. Coupled with that is the mismanagement of power grids that are old and aged. Every year, the government sets a target of increasing power generation. And every year it misses it by 30-50%. A cursory glance at the records of the last 20 years and you will realise how grim the situation is. In the 8th Five Year Plan (1992 – 1997), India missed its capacity addition target by 47.2%; in the 9th Plan (1997 – 2002) it missed by 53.5%. In 10th (2002 – 2007) it was by 49% and in the 11th (2007 – 2012) by 30%. Missed targets and increasing demand means 10-12 hours of power cut for major cities and industrial regions across the country. In villages, power cuts can go up to 18 hours or more. Expectedly, people are angry. In fact, there have been instances of rioting and arson in some cities in UP and Haryana after long hours of power cuts. In the 11th Plan period, a rapidly growing economy led to increased power demand. But power generation remained stuck at 6%. Now, the peak demand deficit during summer is at least 10%. And this gap between generation and demand will keep growing unless the government gets its act together. In June this year, when power demand was at its peak, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had power deficits ranging from 12.6-13.9%. Maharashtra’s power deficit stood at 4.2%. Worse than the power deficit is the fact, nearly 45% of the population still do not have access to electricity. Data accessed by DNA show industrial hubs in UP, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face power cuts of more than 10 hours during summer. With factories running on generators, the cost of power has jumped by a little over 100%. Rahul Sharma, who runs a small and medium enterprise (SME) in UP’s Noida, spent Rs1 lakh on diesel in June for power back up. A desperate UP government asked mall managements across the state to down shutters by 7pm so that domestic users could get electricity. The order was reversed following loud protests. Sushilkumar Shinde, the power minister during the “historic” blackout, was in denial though. At a conference of state power ministers in July he said: “We have done record capacity addition in the 11th Plan at 55,000 MW, which is equal to the capacity addition done in the 8th, 9th and the 10th plans together.” But the fact is the 11th Plan target for capacity addition was 78,700 MW and Shinde’s ministry missed it by 30%. Adding to the power shortage woes is the unavailability of coal that serves as primary fuel to fire plants up. Haryana’s power minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav told DNA that “our 560 MW plant at Jhajjhar has been ready for months, but it does not have any fuel linkage”. As a result, the major industrial and commercial belts of Gurgaon and Faridabad remain in the dark for over 12 hours every day. The story is practically same for all states. Ashok Khurana, director general of the Association of Power Producers, said: “We are missing out on 24,000 MW of coal based-capacity and 18,000 MW of gas based-capacity because neither is available.” If the government does not address the matter urgently through policy and regulatory steps, power producing companies will soon become non-performing assets, he said. Tomorrow: The policy mismanagement that left India powerless