Click to play videoFans and ACs in you city may soon stop working just when you need them most. The summer has just begun and so have power cuts across India.
The Maharashtra government has given private power companies five more days to get electricity for Mumbai. The city needs 2,600 MW every day but power cuts may start next week if companies fail to end a 150-MW shortfall.
Tata Power has managed to procure 50 MW from captive power plants but that is just not enough to solve the crisis.
In Delhi and its suburbs, this summer too maybe hot and without power. Demand in the city is expected to reach 4,000 MW this summer and the shortfall maybe of 300-350MW.
Will there ever be an end to our power woes? Will uninterrupted power supply remain a dream? CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose asked this on India 360 to a panel comprising Uttam Khobragade, GM of the Birhan Mumbai Electricity Supply Transport Undertaking, Dr Kshithij Urs, director of Association for Promotion of Social Action in Bangalore, and Dikshu Kukreja, an architect and town planner.
"In a city like Bangalore, fluorescent bulbs can save 12 million units of power every day.” |
The demand for power supply in Mumbai has grown by eight percent. Where is this power going to come from—increasing generation or improving distribution?
“Both. The solution lies in generating more power and proper utilisation of power. Power cannot be stored and it cannot be generated at short notice. Power generation takes time, and there will be always a mismatch between demand and supply. The immediate solution is better utilisation and conservation,” said Khobragade.
Save and light up
As cities and towns battle power crisis is there something that citizens can do to help? Is it high time now for citizens’ campaign to conserve power?
Kshithij Urs believed that power crisis may too technical but it is actually a “social and ecological issue.” This aspect of the problem never gets attention.
“Incandescent lights and bulbs consume more power can easily be replaced by energy-saving fluorescent bulbs. In a city like Bangalore, fluorescent bulbs can save 12 million units of power every day. This would be a saving of Rs 250 crore every month and the city would not have to buy power from the Central grid,” he said.
An economy growing at 8 percent needs electricity, but the power sector is not considered worthy of investment because there are no returns. What discourages private companies from coming into power generation?
Dikshu Kukreja said the flip side of India’s growth is that everybody has more gadgets and access to technology and this means everybody needs more power.
“If we are developing, we have to look at renewable sources of energy and check power theft,” he said. “Consumers are already paying a lot for electricity but some people are not paying anything at all and are stealing power. Strong legislation against theft will automatically answer how to attract private players into the power sector. Companies will then find power a profitable venture; right now they have no authority to act against people who are stealing power.”
Taking the politics out of power
Politicians find electricity a convenient power tool. Free electricity connections, subsidies and kid gloves against power thieves give them votes but is it making India power deficient?
Khobragade said blaming politicians was not the solution. “The regulatory regime has taken out the politician from deciding the pricing mechanism.”
"Consumers are already paying a lot for electricity but some people are not paying anything at all and are stealing power.” |
But are the regulators working properly? “That question is difficult to answer but I think they are working as far as pricing mechanism is concerned. I think politicians don’t have a role in power theft and we must not blame them for everything. It is a question of implementing the law,” he said.
Stuck on wrong issues
Urs disagreed with the discussion and said there was a “fetish” with load shedding in urban areas. “Seventy percent of our population lives in rural areas and there is no talk about them. This is unfortunate and is based on the kind of imagery we have about development which is related to cities,” he said.
Kukreja found the power crisis ironical. “Geographically, we have all the potential of becoming self-sufficient in power generation. But the distribution system—the National Grid—is antiquated. We need to upgrade that system. About 50-60 percent power is lost just in transmission,” he said.
Malls and glitzy buildings are coming up and people consider it as development, but the true sign of progress—uninterrupted power—remains a dream.
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