Power situation is grim but…
-WD Team

The power situation in the Maharashtra state is indeed bleak, but the authorities are implementing many plans to enhance the generation capacities to meet the soaring demand, says Ajoy Mehta, Managing Director of Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd.

Ajoy Mehta was delivering the inaugural address at a one-day conference, ‘The Power Summit: National and State Issues and Solutions’ organized by Indian Merchants’ Chamber in Mumbai on February 10, 2007. International Management Consultant Partha Ghosh delivered the keynote address. IMC President Nayan Patel welcomed and felicitated them.

Others who addressed the summit included Rangan Banerjee, Professor and Convener of Energy Systems Engineering IIT, Mumbai; Shubhhranshu Patnaik, Associate Director, Energy and Utilities, PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd; Dr. Prakash Hebalkar, President, ProfiTech; Achim Rodewald, Environment Area Manager-Renewable Energy, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, Sandeep Dasgupta, DGM-Marketing, Suzlon Energy Ltd., Dr. Pramod Deo, Chairman, MERC, Niraj Bajaj, IMC Vice-President, and M N Chaini, Director, Reliance Energy Ltd.

Mr. Mehta said that the present pace of phenomenal socio-economic and industrial growth in Maharashtra was leading to a situation in which the growth of demand for power was constantly outpacing the growth of capacity creation and supply. The demand for power was 13,600 MW in 2003-04, which has now risen to 17,000 MW in 2006-07, due to many industrial and developmental projects. “We are energizing one lakh agricultural pumps every year creating an additional demand for 500 MW. We are also adding 300,000 domestic connections every year, creating a further demand of 500 MW”, he said

Turning to the state’s plan for power generation, he said in the past 10 years no additional capacity was planned for various reasons. “Yet, as of today Maharashtra state power is producing 9500 MW per annum, and is the 2nd largest generator, next only to NTPC”, he said. Mr. Mehta said Maharashtra’s two power generation projects, the Parli Project with 250 MW capacities and PARAS project of 250 MW -- would be commissioned before the end of March, 2007. In addition, the government was implementing another 2000 MW power project, which was expected to be commissioned in 2009. It also approved another 2400 MW project at Koradi, and was looking for private sector partners.

There is yet another coastal based project of 1600 MW on anvil, and bids for the project would be invited soon. Another 1000 MW gas-based power plant was also coming up at Uran. To top these all, NTPC was setting up a 2400 MW capacity. Mr. Mehta said: “All these projects, which are going apace, will see us through. In fact, between 2009 and 2011, we will have 1700 MW capacity getting commissioned every year. There will indeed be some problems till 2009. But we have already started getting 350 MW from Dabhol project, which is expected to rise to 2000 MW by end of December 2007.”

On the demand management side, he said Maharashtra was determined to reduce transmission and distribution losses by 2% per annum. Also the government’s Akshay Prakash Yojana to use energy economically was a great draw in rural areas. “We need to level up the peak and base load. We need to provide power only at night for agricultural pump sets, but provide it round the clock to gaothans, which are rural human habitations.”

Partha Ghosh focused more on the world scenario. He said that power and energy was always the focal issues in countries like Japan. The sudden growth of demand for power was leading to a grave situation. India’s per-capita power consumption grew 30 times between 1950 and 2000. “But the demand is expected to double in the next 10 years,” he said. China was able to manage its power needs better because it had a positive trade balance, though its energy balance was negative. “In India we have both a negative trade balance and also a negative energy balance.”

Mr. Ghosh said that it was also necessary to consider the issues in the context of emission of CO2 and resultant ecological costs, increasing population, deforestation, rising sea level, rising temperature and inequity issues.

President Nayan Patel said that currently the State’s power deficit was a whopping 5,700 MW. The widening demand, supply gap had resulted in steep load shedding, power staggering in the state. “To make matters worse, steep hikes in tariff rates have recently been mooted, causing a great deal of trepidation for business community,” he said.