The Hindu : States asked to tap captive power sources

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 06, 2002

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States asked to tap captive power sources

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI AUG. 5. With power crisis looming large in major parts of the country because of scanty rainfall, the Centre and the States today had a brainstorming session to tackle the situation. The strategy worked out basically involves transfer of power from the eastern region which is less affected by the drought, drawing power from captive plants and private producers and expedited renovation and modernisation of existing power-generating units.

Briefing presspersons after the meeting, the Union Power Minister, Suresh Prabhu, said the worst-affected was the southern region since it depended more on hydel generation. Next on the affected list was the northern region, followed by the western region. The eastern region was more or less power-sufficient; in fact, some surplus power would be available from there.

Mr. Prabhu said that most of the hydel generation took place during June-September every year, but this time because of the poor rainfall, most of the reservoirs in the south were below 50 per cent of the normal water level. On the other hand, the demand for power was up by 30 to 50 per cent it was being used to draw up water whereas the water table had fallen.

The meeting decided that the States would try to get power from captive power plants into the State grid since about 1,500 MW of power was available with such plants as of now. Secondly, the idle capacity of the private power producers would be hooked on the grid and in this case, even Maharashtra had agreed to negotiate for the purchase of power from Dabhol's first phase.

In Kerala, power would be drawn from the Kochi joint venture plant of the State Government and the private sector BSES while some more power would be made available from the Kayamkulam plant of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). According to Mr. Prabhu, there are some excise problems associated with this plant, but these would be sorted out soon.

Similarly, the NTPC's Simhadri plant expansion would be expedited and some 500 MW additional power would be available in the southern region by October.

The eastern grid would also increase power supply to the western and southern grid by about 500 MW while the Talcher-Kolar grid would supply an additional 200 MW during peak hours and 800 MW during off-peak hours.

Urgent renovation and modernisation steps would make available another 400-500 MW power in the next two-three months, Mr Prabhu said.

The States, on their part, raised some issues regarding availability and pricing of naphtha and gas as well as shortage of high-speed diesel and the Centre has promised to look into these issues. They also wanted monetary help from the Centre and suggested that money for this could come from the Calamity Relief Fund and the Drought Relief Fund.

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