Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Strategies outlined to meet future power demands

TIRUCHI: Technologies and products have to be diversified to scale up power generation and meet the economic growth projections in the decades to come, Padma Bhushan Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, said on Thursday.

Inaugurating SOJOM 2008, an international symposium on welding of metals, organised by the Welding Research Institute of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) , Tiruchi, and Indian Welding Society, Southern Zone, Dr. Kakodkar said that in four decades from now power requirement will rise ten-fold. Even if every energy resource consisting of coal, oil, gas, hydro and indigenous nuclear power was tapped, there will still be a shortage of 20 to 30 per cent. By 2050, the shortage will reflect in requirement of one billion tonnes of coal.

Import of uranium for nuclear power generation will obviate the need for importing coal, Dr. Kakodkar said.

The basic guideline was to ensure electricity at affordable costs to customers, and the primary pre-requisite for keeping capital costs down and enhancing competitiveness, was to get the manufacturing of nuclear power plant equipment done within the country.

Indian companies, he suggested, should form consortia to start units on a large scale, and make use of the capacity to compete in the international market as well, while catering to domestic requirements.

The Chairman and Managing Director of BHEL, K. Ravi Kumar, said that the company was well on its way to enhance its capacity to 15,000 MW by 2009 and 20,000 MW by 2011 with Rs. 20,000 crore investment.

BHEL has come up with multi-pronged approaches and business strategies to face challenges.

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