The Chhattisgarh Power Generation Company has once again topped by beating the power plants across the country. The company’s plants exhibited 70.08 percent plant load factor (PLF). On the other hand the average PLF of thermal power plants across the country stood at 51.49 percent. Power plants have consistently created a new record by being the first place for past six month, surpassing the 33 power plants of the state power sector.
Telangana State Power Generation Company was second with 68.25 percent and Singareni Koliarish Nigam Limited (SCCL) of Telangana achieved 67.59 percent PLF to stood at third position. Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (Genco), which is among the power plants of other large developed states of the country, could achieve 46.68 percent PLF. Nonetheless, Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Company’s power plant has been continuously ranked first since july 2020.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) releases a report of data on electricity produced from thermal power plants every month. CEA released a report after conducting a comparative analysis of PLF of 33 plants of the state power company across the country. According to this, thermal power plants of Chhattisgarh displayed a record breaking PLF of 70.08 percent in December 2020 in the current financial year.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said to the electrical workers that the state’s power houses maintained their achievement at the national level. It is expected that in the future too, all will be united to keep the plant at the forefront. The chairman of the power company Ankit said that the main entitlement of this credit is the officers and employees working in the power company. NK Bijora, managing director of the production company, said that the power plant’s plant stood the first place with the PLF of 69.83 percent in July.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has given green signal to set up electricity Department lockups in every district to prevent power theft in the state. The electricity companies of Madhya Pradesh will have their own police staffs and have police station in every district. The Energy department of Madhya Pradesh has written a letter to the power companies of the eastern, western and central region of the state.
Chief Secretary of the Department of Energy, Sanjeev Dubey has written to the power companies in his letter that CM Chauhan informed that power stations have been set up in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab to prevent power theft. The Principal Secretary has asked in letter to send a report to state government after reviewing the land and the area for the establishment of station.
Actually, power companies have been demanding to set up power stations in the state from past one year. Now the Shivraj government has given green signal to the establishment of these stations. The power companies will have their own police force to deal with cases of power theft in the state.
According to media reports, each police station may have 2 sub-inspectors, 8 head constables, 16 constables and 30 additional jawans. These can include both men and women. Along with this, posts of sub inspector data operator and sub inspector assistant posts like category two and category three are also likely to be formed.
मध्यप्रदेश में नए साल में एक किलोवाट विद्युत कनेक्शन वाले उपभोक्ताओं को बड़ी राहत मिली है। बिजली कंपनी ने अगस्त 2020 तक के बिजली बिल की बकाया राशि अब लंबे समय तक के लिए स्थगित कर दी है। 9 लाख उपभाक्ताओं से अधिक उपभोगताओं को इस आदेश का फायदा मिलेगा।
कोविड महामारी की वजह से पिछले साल कई उपभोक्ता नौकरी चले जाने और उद्योग धंधे बंद हो जाने की वजह से आर्थिक नुकसान झेल रहे थे। सरकार ने उन सभी को राहत पहुंचाने के लिए अगस्त 2020 तक और उससे पहले की महीने के बिजली बिल की राशि चुकाने से कुछ समय की राहत का स्थगन आदेश निकाला था। जिसे दो-दो महीने करके बढ़ाया जा रहा था, लेकिन अब एक बार फिर से स्थगन आदेश को बढ़ाया गया है।
बता दें जिन उपभोक्ताओं को यह राहत मिली है वह सभी 1 किलो वाट के कनेक्शन धारी उपभोक्ता हैं। इससे अधिक भार क्षमता वाले उपभोक्ताओं को पहले की तरह ही अपने सभी वर्तमान और पूर्व बिजली बिल जमा करने होंगे। इसके साथ ग्वालियर सिटी सर्किल में मध्य क्षेत्र विद्युत वितरण कंपनी, बिजली बिल की 550 करोड़ रुपए की राशि वसूलती है।
जिसमें से लगभग 300 करोड़ रुपये उन 1 किलोवाट कनेक्शन धारी उपभोक्ताओं के है। उनमें से ग्वालियर और भोपाल रीजन में ऐसे 9 लाख उपभोक्ता हैं, जबकि ग्वालियर शहर में ऐसे उपभोक्ताओं की संख्या एक लाख है। वहीं उर्जा मंत्री का कहना है कि एक किलो वाट कनेक्शन वाले उपभोक्ताओं के अगस्त 2020 और उससे पहले के महीनों के बकाया बिजली के बिल की वसूली को लेकर असमंजस की स्थिति बन रही थी। इसी कारणवश यह वसूली आगामी आदेश तक स्थगित कर दी गई है। सरकार जल्द ही ऐसे उपभोक्ताओं के हित में फैसला लेगी ताकि उन्हें राहत मिल सके।
The Government is going to make pre-paid meters compulsory for all households in three years. They would start rolling out pre-paid meters from April 2019. The motive behind this move is to stop illegal connections as well as give the customers relief from month to month bill payment.
This initiative by the Ministry of Power (MoP) is expected to reduce the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses. This move also aims at improving the financial health of distribution companies (DISCOMs), incentivize energy conservation, and make bill payments hassle-free by becoming digital. Manufacturing of smart prepaid meters will also generate skilled employment for the youth. The cost of the smart meter is too high and the main challenge is to reduce it as soon as possible.
State governments had earlier signed the Power for All document. They have also agreed to supply power round the clock to their consumers. If the company fails to do, they would have to pay the penalty.
Under this, “the distribution licensee shall provide 24×7 power to their consumers by 1st April 2019 or earlier. However the appropriate Commission in exceptional circumstances for the reasons to be recorded in writing may grant extension in this time period,” the statement added.
The motive behind the smart meters is quite appealing. The biggest challenge it faces is that the number of connections hasn’t reached its saturation. It means that electricity is still not available to every household. Moreover, the 24-hours electricity target is still quite distant. The government should also take care of these challenges and work on this technology simultaneously.
The definition for ‘village electrification’ in the 2006 rural electrification policy says that a village is deemed ‘electrified’ if infrastructure such as distribution transformer and distribution lines have been set up in the inhabited locality and 10% of the households have access to electricity through the infrastructure. Thus, rural electrification has nothing to do with all villagers getting electricity as well as the duration of electricity provided. Quality comes last in the hierarchy.
Image Source: Wikipedia
Electricity Sector in India
India is the world’s third largest producer and third largest consumer of electricity. The per capita electricity consumption is low compared to many countries despite cheaper electricity tariff in India.
The utility electricity sector in India has one National Grid with an installed capacity of 344.00 GW as on 31 March 2018. Renewable power plants constituted 33.23% of total installed capacity. During the fiscal year 2016-17, the gross electricity generated by utilities in India was 1,236.39 TWh and the total electricity generation (utilities and non utilities) in the country was 1,433.4 TWh.
Thus, India has surplus power generation capacity but lacks adequate infrastructure for supplying electricity to all needy people.
100% Rural Electrification Claim
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in his 2015 Independence Day speech, promised to electrify in 1,000 days, i.e., by May 2018. The Government chose 18,452 villages for electrification by 2018. Out of the 18,452 villages chosen for electrification, the government claimed that 15,183 villages had been connected to the grid by December 2017. Rest were deemed as uninhabited or lacks the population.
In order to address the lack of adequate electricity supply to all the people in the country by March 2019, the Government of India launched a scheme called “Power for All”.
“We need to double our power production. Given the infrastructure and generating capacity we have today…we have the ability to double our power production. If tomorrow we need to add 50 per cent power to our system I am ready for that. We are making about 1.1 trillion units of electricity annually now …We can go up to 1.65 next year,” Power, Coal and Mines Minister Goyal said at INFOCOM 2016.
The statement by the ministry came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that all villages in India have been connected with power. On Saturday evening, Leisang village in Manipur’s Senapati district became the last village to be connected to the national power grid.
As per government data, 1,236 villages are uninhabited and 35 have been notified as grazing reserves.
The Ground Reality of the Claim
As per the government’s rural electrification website, Grameen Vidyutikaran, only 1,301 villages have 100 percent household connectivity. This means that just 0.21 percent of India’s 600,000 villages are completely electrified. The government has now set a new March 2019 deadline for electrification of all households.
To deflate BJP’s claims, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that it was the Congress that electrified 97 per cent of villages in the country but “did not boast”. “On 26th May, 2014; only 18,452 villages were without electrification. BJP Govt took 46 months to complete this at at an average of 4,813 villages per year. This is – ‘celebrating inefficiencies’ & taking ‘fake credit’ for Congress work,” he said.
The biggest discrepancy was in the data used for the scheme. Debajit Palit is a senior fellow and associate director, TERI. He felt that with the launch of a household-level electrification scheme, the relevance of the goal of village electrification is over.
“The annual growth rate of households since the census in 2011 may not have been taken into consideration to estimate the current state wise total households. There is variation in total households data in villages. There could be a wide difference between what the DISCOMs are reporting and what it should be as per the Census 2011 and the subsequent growth. This is creating confusion and raising doubt about the actual number and percentage of unelectrified households in the country. Furthermore, whether households with solar home systems or mini grid connection are counted as electrified or not is also not clear,” Palit said.
The Conclusion
The 100 percent Rural Electrification does not mean that all the villagers are receiving electricity. Electric energy consumption in agriculture was recorded highest (17.89%) in 2015-16 among all countries. So, electrifying villages is the need of the hour.
The claims of 100 percent rural electrification loses its significance by launching of Saubhagya Scheme to bring electricity to every household. This also proves that Government itself knows that electricity is not available in every household. Moreover, the rate of electrification was much slower too. Then why is our government inflating its chest over such inefficiency?
Every thing points to only one direction, that is, creating an image. The skill which has been perfected by this government over its tenure. Let’s see how this Saubhagya Scheme turns out.
