The Hindu : Business : PM calls for introspection on crisis in power sector

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Thursday, Mar 22, 2007
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PM calls for introspection on crisis in power sector

Special Correspondent

Distribution segment not getting its due

— PHOTO: R. V. MOORTHY

HONOURED: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presenting the national award to Power Grid Chairman and Managing Director, R. P. Singh, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Expressing serious concern over power shortage in varying degrees across the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called for a serious introspection as to what had gone wrong in the planning for the power sector so that those issues could be tackled through national consensus.

"Even in a premium State like Maharashtra, children are not able to study during examination time because of power outages. That is the measure of our gap. We must introspect what is it that has gone wrong,'' Dr. Singh remarked.

He also announced that an effort was being made to evolve a broad consensus on power distribution and pricing reforms. He said the Government was serious about tackling the issue of power theft and distribution losses on a war footing "High transmission and distribution losses and theft of electricity is something unacceptable. Such issues need to be tackled on a war footing,'' the Prime Minister said at a function held here to give away national awards to the power utilities.

Dr. Singh said reforms in the distribution sector, which were vital for commercial viability and sustainability of the power sector, had not received adequate attention in the past. He said there was a need to forge a broad national consensus on these reforms. The Prime Minister said the demand for power had outstripped the supply and the shortages remained a constraint on the development and livelihoods of people. "It is indeed regrettable that across the country, power shortage in varying degrees still remains a constraint on development and livelihoods,'' he said.

Dr. Singh said: "the total generation capacity in the X Plan was just above 50 per cent of what was targeted. We need to do much better if we have to ensure that electricity does not become a constraint on our economy''.

The Prime Minister said the Government was giving attention to hydro electricity and given the geographical concentration of hydel generation, efficient transmission was required to take power from far off sources to load centres. Once the Southern regional grid was synchronised with the 90,000 MW National Grid during the XI Plan, the entire country's transmission system would operate as one large interconnected grid, he said.

Several power utilities including NTPC, Power Grid, NEEPCO, NHDC, Reliance Energy and APTRANSCO were honoured on the occasion.

In his address, Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said efforts were being intensified to add over 76,000 MW capacity during the XI Plan. Secretary (Power) Anil Razdan welcomed the dignitaries and Chairman, CEA, Rakesh Nath, proposed a vote of thanks.

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