11 point strategy to cut cost of power

NEW DELHI, DEC. 26. The Union Power Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, has chalked out an eleven-point strategy to achieve reduction in the cost of power generation, distribution and transmission, higher rural electrification and increasing the share of hydel generation with the primary object of providing cheaper power to consumers.

Talking to UNI, Mr. Prabhu said they had set up a multi- disciplinary committee on benchmarking the cost of various equipment that goes into the making of a power plant. He said it was matter of national interest and that reduction in cost of power would immensely enable the domestic industry to become competitive in the global market. He said there would be five independent bodies that would be doing this separately. They are: National Thermal Power Corporation for the thermal sector, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) for the hydel sector, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for the entire power sector with overseas price structure for both these sectors.

The Power Ministry has set up a joint forum consisting of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). They are expected to submit the report over the next few weeks. Apart from this the Ministry of Power on its own will also make a study in this regard.

Mr. Prabhu said with a view to bringing in transparency in the purchase of power equipment the Ministry had decided to launch a portal. This would consists of all purchases of the States, Central and private sectors. This would bring in price competitiveness as it was expected to work as a watchdog on any over pricing of any equipment. This project would be coordinated from the Ministry of Power by Mr. Anil Rajdhan, director.

He said the Ministry had set up a special taskforce comprising secretaries from finance, rural development, power, coal, railways and environment, representatives from State electricity boards, chairmen and managing directors of public sector enterprises of the power sector and representatives of independent power producers (IPPs), Assocham, CII and FICCI.

Mr. Prabhu said they had been asked to prepare a white paper on the present status of the power sector in the country and should also prepare a future prospective.

He said the Ministry of Power had taken a decision to undertake reforms in the transmission and distribution sector in more vigorous way involving a capital expenditure of Rs. 60,000 crores. This was being done with the object of reducing the anticipated loss due to pilferage in power (from Rs. 40,000 crores to around Rs. 10,000 crores per year). This project will be coordinated by the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Mr. Vasudavan.

The Ministry has also decided to abandon the existing system of signing memorandum of understanding (Mou) with the States as it is found to be of no pragmatic value. In this regard, the CEA has been asked to make separate study for each State. This would automatically be looked into the various State problems. The CEA is expected to submit the report by January 31.

Mr. Prabhu stressed the need for the early completion and commissioning of the national grid system. This would help in the evacuation of surplus power from the eastern region to the southern region. It was estimated that around 3000 MW of surplus power could be made available from the eastern region. Apart from this the CEA had also been asked to tap the nearly 20,000 MW of captive generation for the national grid. He said even ''if we could achieve 50 per cent of this captive generation for the national network the power situation will improve drastically.''

- UNI

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