Punjab will be a power surplus state by 2013 and we would export power to other states and even to Pakistan”, announced, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Hon’ble, Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Punjab while addressing the Conference on Power Reforms for the North organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) NR here in Chandigarh today with an aim to find ways to provide 24/7 Electricity for All.
“Commissioning of a single power generation plant involves numerous procedural steps like land feasibility studies, acquiring land, ensuring Rail linkages, regular fuel (coal) supplies, daunting task of getting environmental clearances and bidding process. All this would generally take around 7 years, but we have achieved this in 2 years time. Our 1200 MW (Mega Watt), L & T Thermal power Project in Rajpura would be operational next year. We would upgrade it to 2000 MW soon. In addition, 2 more thermal power projects viz, 2000 MW project with Sterlite Energy Limited in Talwandi Sabo and 1350 MW project with Indiabulls Power near Mansa would also be commissioned by the end of next year”, he added.
“I have been personally visiting these sites to ensure that all work is in time. Alongside this, we are also investing heavily to upgrade our technology and reduce T & D (Transmission & Distribution) losses. We have brought it down from 24 % to 17.5 % and hope to bring it further down to 15 %. We are also encouraging use of CFLs and renewable sources of energy like Bio mass and solar energy, which have immense potential in Punjab. Bio mass energy would even help farmers earn an extra income of Rs 3000 – 4000 per acre by supplying raw material. After our Mission Power, we are concentrating heavily on Road Infrastructure. Punjab will have pucca roads all across its villages and towns in 3 years”, he iterated.
He also appealed industry to join hands with the government in its projects like solar, thermal and hydel projects. “Solar projects would by in 1 – 2 MW categories primarily for Small players”, he shared.
He further went on to say that “India has all the ingredients to be a power surplus nation viz biggest coal reserves, water, hills, solar and wind energy and bio mass etc. Unfortunately, we have not used these resources to our advantage. But now, in the current scenario of globalization, it is highly imperative that we switch to most modern technology and latest means to harness these resources for power generation and reduce T & D losses”.
Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Hon’ble Minister for Power, Government of Haryana shared that “Haryana would soon be power surplus state as well, provided the fault in its Yamunanagar thermal plant is recovered and the Jhajjar thermal plant is commissioned. I am hopeful of both these plants being operational by the end of this year”.
“Power directly impacts the economy, the employment and the standard of living of the people of the country, hence it is our priority sector”, he added.
“Since, in Haryana, there are very limited natural resources like coal mines and high velocity winds and lack of land to harness the solar energy, we have to majorly depend on coal linkages for thermal power generation. We have raised our investments in the Power sector to 23,000 crore in the 12th plan from 17000 crore in the last plan to reduce the T & D losses and meet the ever rising demand. We provided 9.96 lakh units of power in 2011 – 12 as compared to 5.78 lakh units in 2004-05. I appreciate the centre Governments’ policy of restructuring of power distribution utilities to reduce their financial burden. The bad quality of coal and poor linkages are the two main hurdles we are facing in the production of power”, Mr Yadav explained.
According to Mr Praveer Sinha, CII Conference Chairman & Co-Chairman, CII NR Committee on Power Reforms & Renewable Energy and CEO & MD, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd – “As regards the power deficit, though the northern region (6.4 %) fares better than India’s average of 8.5 %, but, to meet the ever rising demand and attract investments, there is a dire need to take immediate steps to remove various bottlenecks in the power sector in north like unavailability of fuel, untrained manpower, improper fuel linkages, poor technology leading to high T & D Losses, long process of clearances for setting up new power projects etc”.
“The commissioning and implementation of the proposed power projects in Punjab within timelines holds the key”, Mr Sinha added.
Mr Debashish Mazumdar, Chairman, CII NR Committee on Power Reforms & Renewable Energy and Director – Wartsila Power Plants cited the example of the month of June, – “the scheduled load in the Northern Region in June was 16, 094 MW, the actual burden on the Transformer was 28, 416 MW, i.e an over burden of 12322 MW. He further highlighted that “Most of the states in the northern region have higher per capita power consumption than the all-India average of 779 KWh. Hence Northern states also need to raise their own power producing capacities to suffice the gap”. In the Twelfth Five Year Plan, the government plans to add 90,000 MW of new capacity, which would require an investment of INR 6,380 billion.
Mr Pikender Pal Singh, Regional Director, CII NR emphasized that “In order to ensure 24X7 power availability, it is high time now that we step up to 100000 MW Generation, add Peaking Power Capacities, channelize investments to strengthen Transmission Network, adapt latest technology, apply Automatic Load Management Systems to ensure Grid Security and encourage Private Sector Participation. We must also urgently adopt all possible measures to bring down the AT&C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) losses from the current National average of 25% to 15 % in 1 year’s time”.
Various key issues, challenges and trends were discussed in detail and solutions were presented by various experts like Mr D L Sharma, Vice Chairman, CII Punjab State Council and Director, Vardhman Textiles Ltd, Mr Anirudh Tiwari, Secretary – Power, Punjab, Mr Devender Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, DHBVN & UHBVN, Mr B D Suyal, Special Secretary – Power & MPP, HP, Mr N R Pai, Vice President – Power Plants, Wartsila India Ltd, Mr Somenath Byabortta, Director, Industry Business Solutions (Utilities), SAP India Pvt Ltd, Mr Ajay Kumar, Vice President – Power Purchase, BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, Mr Guru Malladi, Partner – Advisory Services, Ernst & Young, Mr B P Mukherjee, President, Ferranti Computer Systems India Pvt. Ltd, Mr Balour Singh, Director, Punjab Energy Development Agency, Mr Sandeep Hasurkar, Vice President, IREL, IL&FS Energy Development Company Ltd, Mr Rajesh K Mediratta, Director – Business Development, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd, Mr Rakesh Kumar, Executive Vice President, PTC India Ltd