Ministry to focus on power generation target

New Delhi: Emphasising on an increased role for the public sector in power generation and the private sector in the distribution business, Mr Jairam Ramesh, who took charge of his additional portfolio as Minister of State for Power, is all for strengthening the technological and managerial expertise of PSUs in the sector and synergising their roles to complement generation capacity building efforts.

Coming at a time when the major PSUs in the power sector, NTPC Ltd and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL)are at loggerheads on a bevy of issues, Mr Ramesh has kicked off his new stint, or ATC (additional temporary charge) as he insists on calling it, by meeting up with the top brass of both the utilities, besides the others, over the next few days. “We have to strengthen BHEL. We are in advanced stages of getting through the BHEL-NTPC joint venture,” he said.

His immediate priority, as he puts it in an informal meeting with presspersons, is ensuring that the capacity addition target of around 11,000 MW for the current fiscal (the second year of the Eleventh Plan period) is on track. Besides, he is going to focus on the implementation aspects of the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, the rural electrification programme of the Government, which Mr Ramesh calls the “aam aadmi” face of the ministry, under which the Centre plans to electrify 125,000 villages.

Asked about the role of private players which have recently won contracts for setting up ultra mega power projects, he said: “I believe India will depend a lot on PSUs for generation and transmission of power.” He said that PSUs enjoy a natural advantage for building the power generation capacity, while private sector can perform better in distribution.

“The managerial and technological capacity in PSUs has to be the priority item as far as the Government is concerned even as we pursue reforms in distribution,” he said.

On the slippages in the capacity addition targets over the last three Plan periods, Mr Ramesh said: “The biggest task is to reverse the trend of over-promising and under-achieving as far as capacity addition target is concerned.” In the first year of the current Plan (2007-08), around 9,200 MW has already been commissioned, which by itself is the highest ever capacity addition in a single year. But in light of the fact that it includes several spill over projects from the Tenth Plan and that the achievement falls short of the 12,000 MW originally targeted for 2007-08, the legacy of underachievement in capacity addition targets continues.

He said he would monitor on a day-to-day basis the progress regarding the 145 odd projects totalling 51,000 MW that are being implemented currently. “In 2008-09, we are promising 11,000 MW. We have to make sure that we have systems in place so that 11,000 MW is added in this year,” Mr Ramesh said.

On the distribution reforms front, he said the Finance Ministry has cleared a restructured Rs 50,000-crore Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP), which would soon be sent to the Cabinet for approval. “APDRP in its new avtaar is going to be sanctioned very soon. In May last year, we promised a new APDRP scheme. That scheme has been approved by the Finance Ministry and we are going to the Cabinet with the proposal soon. It is going to be Rs 50,000-crore scheme linked with power sector reforms and for the purpose of reducing AT&C losses,” he said.

The scheme envisages to bring the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses to less than 15 per cent by the end of Eleventh Five Year Plan in the urban and high population density areas.