Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, May 15, 2005 |
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Industry & Economy
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Power Power capacity addition in Eleventh Plan — States own resources must make bulk of contribution: Ministry Our Bureau
POWER PRESCRIPTIONS: The Union Minister for Power, Mr P.M. Sayeed (left), with the Union Power Secretary, Mr R.V. Shahi, at a press conference in Chennai on Saturday. - K.V. Srinivasan
Chennai , May 14 THE Power Ministry has begun planning well in advance to ensure that power generation capacity is added continuously through the Eleventh Plan rather than bunched toward the end of the Plan period. As part of this exercise, the Ministry has started holding discussions with the States, region by region. After a review of the power situation in the Southern region here on Saturday, the Ministry said that a bulk of the planned capacity addition during the Eleventh Plan would have to come from the States' own resources, with Central utilities and the private sector contributing the balance. The Union Power Minister, Mr P.M. Sayeed, who reviewed the power situation in the South, told a press conference that the southern States would bring in 10,774 megawatts (MW) of the 20,000 MW that was to be added in the region during the Eleventh Plan. Mr Sayeed said the meeting discussed the planned capacity addition, apart from taking stock of the power situation in the southern States. Unlike in the previous five-year Plan periods, planning for the Eleventh Plan period is being taken up two years in advance to avoid additions to power generation capacity being put off to the end of the Plan period. The Minister attributed the bottleneck in power generation to the shortfall in adding new power generation capacities during the Ninth Plan period (1997-2002), when only 47 per cent of the target was achieved. During the current Plan period, over 90 per cent of the targeted addition of 40,110 MW to generation capacity is in place. The programme for the Eleventh Plan, which envisages adding 60,000 MW, is being finalised, Mr Sayeed said. The review is expected to show how each State Government would contribute to the additional power capacity. The South has been much better off in the power situation compared to the northern States, where, in some cases, there has been no addition to power generation in the last 10 years. According to the Power Secretary, Mr R.V. Shahi, in the South, the average power shortage is about 1.5 per cent with the peaking shortage at 3-4 per cent. Pondicherry reported no shortage, while Karnataka has a shortfall of 4 per cent. The power situation in Kerala and Tamil Nadu has improved, he said. An outcome of the meeting on Saturday was that the States have spelt out their plans on capacity addition throughout the Eleventh Plan period. Tamil Nadu will need an additional 4,000 MW and had planned to add 1,000 MW from its own resources. But the Power Ministry requested it to increase its share to 2,000 MW, considering that it is a high-growth State, he said. Andhra Pradesh plans to add 9,000 MW, with 4,600 MW being put up by it and the balance coming from independent power producers. Karnataka has committed to add 3,400 MW of the 6,000 MW it needs. It is looking at the Central allocation and the private sector to make up the balance. Kerala needs 1,000 MW and it expects to add 474 MW from hydel schemes. Pondicherry is looking at additional 200 MW from the Central allocation, Mr Shahi said. All these States also agreed to finalise their schedules of capacity addition (right from floating tenders to awarding the bids) and send them to the Ministry at the earliest. To a query on continued free supply to agriculture in some States, Mr Sayeed said that the fate of free power is evident. Maharashtra, for instance, has cut off free power supply to agriculture. Only State Governments that have the financial capacity can continue with the scheme. But they invariably seek the assistance of Central Power Utilities, which have earmarked 15 per cent of their capacity to respond to such an `SOS,' he said. Earlier, addressing the review meeting, Mr Sayeed said 2004-05 saw major progress in the power sector. The National Electricity Policy was announced; the tariff policy was finalised after consultations with all the State Governments and a comprehensive rural electrification scheme was put in place. Power generation reached a record 587.3 billion units, which represents a 5.2 per cent growth over the previous year, despite the shortage of coal and gas without which it would have been 8.5 per cent higher. The collection efficiency of Central public sector undertakings reached 100 per cent against 77 per cent in 2001-02.
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