Power situation may worsen

Reports from PTI Bureaux speak of ambitious programmes undertaken by state governments to bridge the growing shortage but experts say unless people are made to pay for power, its abuse would continue and bleed state electricity boards.

Responsible for power distribution and collecting dues, SEBs have been unable to plough back the money for improving services, leading to a vicious circle that has hit the people hard, says chairman RP Singh, Power Grid Corporation of India PGCI noting 8220;parliament will have to decide the issue.8221;

At 360 billion units per year, India8217;s power needs fall 10 per cent short ofits demand for 400 billion units. And, the country is barely able to consume half of its total installed capacity of 8,60,000 mw, said an expert.

Most of this is due to low power plant efficiency and the absence of proper lines linking the generating stations with the end consumer.

An official of the Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board attributed the shortage to limitations in transmission infrastructure which prevent power available in one area from being moved to a deficit corner.

If the plant load factor is raised to 75 per cent, even the existing capacity of 7500 mw would be more than adequate for Tamil Nadu, which expects to become power surplus by the turn of the century, he said.

As a rule investment in generation should generally be equal to that in transmission and distribution, says Singh, but in India investment in the latter has been only 28 per cent of the total.

In the Ninth Plan, investment in Tamp;D Has been envisaged at Rs 58,000 crore, he said.

According to Singh the government isalso contemplating a bill allowing private sector into laying transmission lines. Distribution, however, would be decided by PGCI or SEBs.

And it is distribution losses that have over the years rendered the business of power an extremely expensive and non-profitable proposition in the country.

Most states distribute power free to farmers trying to make good the price by charging the industrial and domestic consumers. Such high prices essentially meant to discourage wasteful consumption, have actually led to power theft, which is as high as 50 per cent in Delhi alone.

While half of the power supplied in the capital is unpaid for, according to Singh, distribution losses in Bihar total 40 per cent, while in Haryana it is 33 per cent.

Cash-starved SEBs have little incentive for undertaking efforts at improving transmission and distribution, says director RK Pachauri of Tata Energy Research Institute.

In the absence of state investments, they have little option than to overdraw from the regional gridsto meet the power demands or simply shut down or resort to load shedding.

States like Karnataka, which till two decades ago was power surplus, today imports 1.1 million units from Maharashtra and 14.97 million units from the central grid.

Still unable to meet the daily demand of 75 million units, KSEB has imposed four-hour load shedding in urban areas and six hours power cut in rural areas.