Power boards short-circuiting to closure

MUMBAI, SEPT 2: Come the next millennium, the state electricity boards will be a things of the past. With huge accumulated losses slated ...

MUMBAI, SEPT 2: Come the next millennium, the state electricity boards will be a things of the past. With huge accumulated losses slated to be at a staggering Rs 25,000 crore, the inability to generate resources to install added capacity, there is no way that these institutions can survive beyond 2002, given the new energy policy that envisages extensive reforms and re-structuring. This was stated by Maharashtra State Electricity Board MSEB chairman Asoke Basak in his spirited presentation titled, Changing Role of SEBs in Development of Power Sector in the New Millennium.

The reforms and restructuring is already underway in Orissa, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh and though Maharashtra has not followed suit yet, because quot;it is the best-managed SEB in the country,quot; it too would may have no option but to follow suit. According to the MSEB chairman, plans are already underway to completely privatise power distribution in the State. For starters, a scheme is under consideration for Navi Mumbai in the formof joint venture company, but nothing has been decided in concrete terms since talks with the union representatives were still on and the modalities were still being worked out.

Making his presentation as part of the annual conference of the Indian Nuclear Society8217;s power-in-the-next-millennium theme, Basak had his dig at the nuclear power industry. Pointing out that out of the more than 9,000 MW supply, the electricity supplied to the Maharashtra grid by the nuclear sector was just 180 MW, though at the rate of just 83 paise per kw/h which was being supplied by the Tarapore unit. quot;Where is your power?quot; asked Basak, quot;I want to have the power so that the consumers will get it cheaply.quot;

The dig came after chairman and managing director of Nuclear Power Corporation Y S R Prasad gave a powerful presentation of why nuclear power is the only viable alternative for the next millennium. His stand, in part, ran directly against the concept of awarding power projects to foreign entities with loss of foreignexchange and incorporating foreign technology without quot;value addition.quot;

Though nuclear power needed higher capital, Prasad sought to show the long gestation periods of around 8 years and cost over-runs were only a transitory phase when imported technology was given added value indigenously. As examples he cited the nearly 90 per cent indigenous components that characterised the nuclear power plants being set up and scheduled to go critical including Kaiga II and RAPS III followed later by the 500 MW Tarapore units. Following the excellent performance of the NPPs in operation over the last four years, the reactor designs once standardised, would reduce the gestation period to just above 4 years against a world average of five-and-a-half years. He also pointed out that apart from the environmental hazards posed by coal-based and other conventional electricity generation units, the sources themselves would be completely depleted within the next 50 years except in the case of hydro projects.

Prasad noted thatvalue-added nuclear power technology has potential to be exported and earn valuable foreign exchange instead of losing it to foreign-based units setting up power projects in India.

Supporting Prasad8217;s thesis, executive director of Operating Plants Safety Division of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board G R Srinivasan provided statistics to show that nuclear power had very low risk factors. Against 37, 27, 32 and 2 lives lost for one gigawatt of electricity production from coal, lignite, oil and gas respectively, the figure for nuclear power generation per gigawatt was just one.