POWER MINISTERS’ CONFERENCE BEGINS IN NEW DELHI TO DISCUSS ISSUES RELATED TO GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION AND RURAL ELECTRIFICATION
Emphasizing the important role to be played by the State Governments and industry in turning around the Power Sector, Union Power Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde today urged them to help create a robust competitive environment crucial for the sustainable development. Delivering the inaugural address at the Conference of Power Ministers’ of all States and UTs in New Delhi this morning, he said that the future vision and approach for strengthening the power sector depends upon continuation of the reform and restructuring process with a view to improve financial health of utilities.
Terming power as an essential input for sustaining an annual growth rate of 8-10%, the Power Minister said that quality power supply to farmers, industries, households and other consumers at reasonable prices is one of the main priorities of the Government. He said that his ministry has taken several initiatives to fulfill the mission of providing power to all by 2012.
About 200 delegates including Lt. Governor, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Power Ministrers and Power Secretaries of various states, and the representatives of Central and State Power utilities attended the meeting convened by the Ministry of Power to discuss critical issues related to Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Rural Electrification. Minister of State for Coal, Shri Sriprakash Jaiswal and Minister of State for Environment & Forests, Shri Jairam Ramesh and Minister of State in the PMO, Shri Prithviraj Chavan and Member, Planning Commission, Shri B.K. Chaturvedi also participated.
Observing that the capacity addition target of 78,700 MW for the 11th Plan is more than three times the actual capacity addition during the 10th plan, Shri Shinde expressed confidence that the same will be achieved by adopting a systematic approach and with the help of the States and the industry.
Announcing that out of 5653 MW capacity addition target in the first 100 days of the Government, 2319 MW has already been achieved, the Minister sought cooperation from the concerned States in achieving timely completion of balance projects.
The Minister announced that under his chairmanship, a Special Advisory Group (SAG) on generation will be set up shortly to expedite completion of the ongoing capacity addition projects on a war footing. The Group will consist of Experts, retired Secretaries to the Government of India, and one nominee each from FICCI, CII and BHEL. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and Power Project Monitoring Panel (PPMP) would identify bottlenecks in timely completion of the ongoing projects and apprise the advisory group of the progress. Based on these reports, the Group will meet periodically to review the progress, make field visits if necessary and advise the Ministry for remedial action.
Shri Shinde also pointed out that Open Access which allows generating stations to enter the market and sell power directly to high tension consumers, has been permitted in most of the States mainly for captive generation. He said that some State Governments decision to restrict the sale of surplus power within the State only is against the spirit of Electricity Act, 2003. Warning that it would also adversely affect the projected capacity addition in the 11th Five Year Plan by the private sector he called for all necessary steps to operationalize open access by implementing various measures laid down in the Electricity Act, 2003, National Electricity Policy and the Tariff Policy.
Shri Shinde called upon all power utilities to work hard and come up with long term business plans with a clear cut road map of loss reduction and reliability improvement and appealed to his colleagues from the States to take advantage of the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme(R-APDRP) to revitalize the ailing distribution sector.
Terming rural electrification as an important instrument to bring about inclusive growth, the Minister informed that so far about 62,000 villages have been electrified and about sixty lakhs BPL households have been given free electricity connections under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, RGGVY.
Shri Shinde also announced that testing facilities are being augmented with online short circuit testing of Transformers upto 315 MVA as against the available facilities for testing transformers upto 90 MVA. A joint venture company comprising of four CPSUs, namely, NTPC, NHPC, PGCIL and DVC has been set up for the purpose.
The Minister said that to overcome the problem of shortage of highly skilled manpower for the power sector and the shortcomings in the skill set of ITI trained skilled workers, an initiative has been taken by the CPSUs, in line with the scheme of the Ministry of Labour, to upgrade ITIs in different locations in the country through public private partnerships. The CPSUs of the Ministry will be providing 100 days training to evolve Master Trainers for effective dissemination of knowledge and skills.
On the occasion, the Union Power Minister released comprehensive guidelines for implementation of Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) for electrification of remote and far-flung villages. Minister of State for Power, Shri Bharatsinh Solanki, released a CD and booklets which give district-wise information of villages where electrification works are proposed to be undertaken under RGGVY. These booklets will be widely distributed amongst the elected members and public for dissemination of information.
In his address, Shri Solanki also called for a sincere and concerted effort by all the States and the stakeholders in the power industry for the development of the sector. He expressed hope that today’s meeting, would have a close review on the capacity addition under construction so as to ensure that like X Plan there is no slippage and the planned capacity addition is attained during the XI Plan.
Member, Planning Commission, Shri B.K. Chaturvedi also addressed the gathering and called upon all utilities to address critical issues in order to improve the power scenario. Secretary, Ministry of Power, Shri HS Brahma delivered the welcome address.
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