India records highest ever power generation capacity added in a year, exceeds target in 2012-13

20,622.8 nuclear power has been set, with the highest contribution of 7859 MW expected from the private sector. A capacity addition of 7,008 MW has already been achieved till 10.12.2013. 24th May, 2013 was a historic day in for power generation in India with the highest ever generation of 128 GW in a day.

Power generation in India is still heavily reliant on coal and gas with thermal accounting for more than 80% of annual power generation. of bottlenecks, it was possible to add 17107 ckm of transmission lines during the year 2012-13 and it is proposed to lay 18674 ckm of transmission lines during 2013-14, out of which 7620 ckm is already achieved till November 2013. Number of substations targeted for the period are 35363 MVA and achieved upto Nov 2013 are 26180 MVA. Purnea-Bihar Sharief transmission line which was commissioned this year became the  first transmission line in the private sector.

Work is now on on transmission voltages of -+800kV HVDC & 1200kV 1200kV UHVAC after Conserving Right-of-Way (RoW), minimizing impact on natural resources, coordinated development of cost effective transmission corridor, flexibility in upgradation of transfer capacity of lines matching with power transfer requirement became  major areas of concern in development of transmission network in the country.

The southern grid connectivity got fast-tracked in the current year and 60 per cent of the work got completed with the establishment of 315 towers. The grid connectivity is likely to be completed by January, 2014.

• R-APDRP (Restructured-Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme)

Under R-APDRP, government gives financial assistance for setting up automated systems of energy data collection and energy accounting and incentives by way of grants for reducing AT & C losses. Projects worth Rs. 37,189.82 cr are now under implementation.

• RGGVY (Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana)

The government has been able to surpass the targets set for the RGGVY under the Bharat Nirman programme. Since its inception, electrification works in 1.08 (96%) lakh un-electrified villages, 3.03 lakh (79%) partially electrified villages have been completed and free electricity connections to 2.13 crore (77%) BPL households have been released under RGGVY as on 15.11.2013. Reforms introduced in RGGVY this year are meant to ensure energisation of villages as compared to mere electrification.  Now, villages with just 100 people will also get access to electricity while there has been an increase in prescribed load for a BPL household to 250 watts (up from 40 watts)  and for an APL household to 500 watts (up from 250 watts).

• Financial Restructuring of State DISCOMs
• Grid Security & Grid Discipline

• Smart Grid

The Smart Grid Vision and Road map document for India was released during Power Minister’s Conference on 10th Sep’13. Activities for planning the launch of National Smart Grid Mission have been initiated.

• Emphasis on clearances & removing bottlenecks became operational from October onwards. 

In a major victory for the power sector, the government decided that the total domestic gas supply to fertilizer sector be capped at their present level of 31.5 MMSCMD and all additional domestic gas from the year 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 will be allotted to power sector to help improve generation.

4 UMPPs have so far been transferred to the selected developer namely (i) Mundra in Gujarat, (ii) Sasan in Madhya Pradesh, (iii) Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and (iv) Tilaiya in Jharkhand.All the five Units (5X 800 MW) of Mundra has been commissioned. First Unit (1X 660 MW) commissioned in May, 2013.

Several other UMPPs are in the pipeline ie (i) Nayunipalli in Andhra Pradesh, (ii) Husainabad in Jharkhand, (iii) Bijoypatna inBhadrak district for coastal location and Narla & Kasinga in Kalahandi district for inland location in Odisha, (iv) UMPP in Bihar and (v) sites in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat for second UMPPs (Site yet to be finalized).

Efforts on war footing being made for speedy clearances to hydro electric power projects in the J & K and NER like  Dibang Central (3000 MW) by NHPC in Arunachal Pradesh, Tipaimukh Central (1500 MW) by NHPC in Manipur, Pakal Dul(1000 MW) under Joint Venture in J&K, Subansiri in Assam among others.

• Energy Efficiency & Energy Saving

Various Energy Efficiency Policies of Government of India have resulted in an Avoided Generation Capacity to the tune of 10,836 MW during 11th plan period.

The participating units of 2013 National Energy Conservations Awards programme have achieved an annual monetary savings of Rs. 4141 Crores. These units have also saved energy equivalent to the energy generated from a 711 MW Thermal Power Station.

It has been mandatory from this year onwards that all ministries/departments while procuring appliances will ensure that they show the threshold BEE star rating carried against them. This scheme of public procurement of energy efficient appliances will help to save 15-20% energy use of these offices equivalent to avoided installation of a 250 MW capacity thermal power plant.

• Institutional Mechanism to address problems faced by the power sector

For the first time, two conferences of state power Ministers and Secretaries were held in a year. Also for the first time two meetings were held with heads of CERC/SERCs this year. Advisory group of industrialists, consultants and economists has been set up to come up with joint solutions to problems facing the power sector. The group meets very frequently. Frequent meetings of Parliament Consultative Committee are being held on critical issues facing the power sector. 

In a nutshell this has been an action packed year for the power sector wherein all the stakeholders worked with a determination to take this sector to a new high.