Times of India - Minhaz Merchant Jul 12, 2012, 12.00AM IST
To solve the power crisis, reduce electricity theft and reform the coal sector
While most of India sweltered this extended summer, the people charged with delivering electricity to the country barely broke a sweat. Power outages through June and July averaged over 36,000 MW - roughly 18% of India's installed generating capacity of 2,02,980 MW. Outages across the country routinely cause 16-hour blackouts in cities. Nearly 25% of India's population (over 300 million) still has no access to electricity. That contrasts sharply with those in power. The VIP precinct of Lutyens' Delhi, for example, never suffers power outages.
To solve the power crisis, reduce electricity theft and reform the coal sector
While most of India sweltered this extended summer, the people charged with delivering electricity to the country barely broke a sweat. Power outages through June and July averaged over 36,000 MW - roughly 18% of India's installed generating capacity of 2,02,980 MW. Outages across the country routinely cause 16-hour blackouts in cities. Nearly 25% of India's population (over 300 million) still has no access to electricity. That contrasts sharply with those in power. The VIP precinct of Lutyens' Delhi, for example, never suffers power outages.
Unbridled power theft, often with official connivance, is a major cause
for the chronic electricity shortage that bedevils India - hurting
farmers, industrialists and traders alike. The other cause is bad
governance. Transmission and distribution (T&D) losses are over 32%
of installed generating capacity compared to the global average of 10%.
Shortage of coal - again a direct result of misgovernance of our natural resources - has worsened the crisis. Mumbai's island city is one of the few urban areas in India where there have been no power cuts stretching back decades. The reason: a unique "islanding system" pioneered by Tata Power. If the Western Regional Power Grid breaks down, the system is automatically isolated from the rest of the grid, ensuring uninterrupted power to the island city. The Tatas (along with Reliance) supply power to Delhi as well but, in the absence of an "islanding system" and Delhi's higher incidence of power theft, outages remain endemic in the capital.
The key to solving India's power crisis lies in four areas. First, rapidly adding more generating capacity across the country. Two, reducing T&D losses (including theft) from 32% to nearer the 10% global average. Three, reforming the coal-mining sector to ensure steady fuel supply to power plants. Four, refinancing bankrupt state electricity boards who today don't have the funds to even maintain their equipment - a primary cause of unscheduled power outages.
If tough audits of power utilities can reduce T&D losses on account of both theft and poorly maintained transmission and distribution equipment from 32% to 25%, nearly 14,000 MW will be saved daily. India's current power shortage of 32,000 MW could thus be nearly halved. In 2012-13, the power ministry has targeted additional generating capacity of 18,000 MW. By 2013-14, India can therefore become a power-surplus country if T&D losses are cut, planned extra capacity installed on time and largely self-inflicted coal fuel shortages alleviated.
Power blackouts are only a symptom of a misgoverned nation. Chronic shortages of power that black out "modern" cities like Gurgaon and leave millions without electricity around the country would shame any leadership without the thick skin that India's politicians and bureaucrats have acquired over the years.
Poor governance, corruption and inefficiency create shortages across sectors - from power and water to urban housing and civic infrastructure. The great success stories of the past 20 years have been those where the government has had little role to play - for example, the information technology industry. When a sector has potential - telecom, for ins-tance - corrupt and opaque policymaking have stymied progress.
Living in Lutyens' Delhi and Mumbai's Malabar Hill, their exorbitant rents foregone by taxpayers, politicians and senior bureaucrats do not feel the day-to-day pain of millions of Indians who live in stifling darkness, fight over water every morning and travel like cattle in packed suburban trains. This constitutes the tyranny of the elected. For at least one week every year, it should be mandatory for every MP, MLA, MLC and bureaucrat to live and travel the way the rest of India does. Only then will they experience, first hand, what their misgovernance puts the average Indian through. The culture of privilege that insulates the entitled from 16-hour blackouts must go if India is to provide the most basic of services - 24-hour electricity - to all, not just to those in power.
Shortage of coal - again a direct result of misgovernance of our natural resources - has worsened the crisis. Mumbai's island city is one of the few urban areas in India where there have been no power cuts stretching back decades. The reason: a unique "islanding system" pioneered by Tata Power. If the Western Regional Power Grid breaks down, the system is automatically isolated from the rest of the grid, ensuring uninterrupted power to the island city. The Tatas (along with Reliance) supply power to Delhi as well but, in the absence of an "islanding system" and Delhi's higher incidence of power theft, outages remain endemic in the capital.
The key to solving India's power crisis lies in four areas. First, rapidly adding more generating capacity across the country. Two, reducing T&D losses (including theft) from 32% to nearer the 10% global average. Three, reforming the coal-mining sector to ensure steady fuel supply to power plants. Four, refinancing bankrupt state electricity boards who today don't have the funds to even maintain their equipment - a primary cause of unscheduled power outages.
If tough audits of power utilities can reduce T&D losses on account of both theft and poorly maintained transmission and distribution equipment from 32% to 25%, nearly 14,000 MW will be saved daily. India's current power shortage of 32,000 MW could thus be nearly halved. In 2012-13, the power ministry has targeted additional generating capacity of 18,000 MW. By 2013-14, India can therefore become a power-surplus country if T&D losses are cut, planned extra capacity installed on time and largely self-inflicted coal fuel shortages alleviated.
Power blackouts are only a symptom of a misgoverned nation. Chronic shortages of power that black out "modern" cities like Gurgaon and leave millions without electricity around the country would shame any leadership without the thick skin that India's politicians and bureaucrats have acquired over the years.
Poor governance, corruption and inefficiency create shortages across sectors - from power and water to urban housing and civic infrastructure. The great success stories of the past 20 years have been those where the government has had little role to play - for example, the information technology industry. When a sector has potential - telecom, for ins-tance - corrupt and opaque policymaking have stymied progress.
Living in Lutyens' Delhi and Mumbai's Malabar Hill, their exorbitant rents foregone by taxpayers, politicians and senior bureaucrats do not feel the day-to-day pain of millions of Indians who live in stifling darkness, fight over water every morning and travel like cattle in packed suburban trains. This constitutes the tyranny of the elected. For at least one week every year, it should be mandatory for every MP, MLA, MLC and bureaucrat to live and travel the way the rest of India does. Only then will they experience, first hand, what their misgovernance puts the average Indian through. The culture of privilege that insulates the entitled from 16-hour blackouts must go if India is to provide the most basic of services - 24-hour electricity - to all, not just to those in power.
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