Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das on Thursday said Rs2,000 crore is planned to be spent to improve power distribution and provide quality power round-the-clock under the State Capital Region Improvement of Power System (SCRIPS) project in the area comprising Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Khordha and Jatni.
Das was addressing the Odisha Energy Conclave 2014 organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to discuss the status, opportunities and challenges faced by the sector.
He said the State Government has decided to provide quality power round the clock to each panchayat headquarters by 2019. By that time, the Government is also planning to provide power on demand to any industry or household in 85 per cent of the area of the State. The required power is expected to be available from expansion of the OPGC, new plants of the NTPC and other plants under construction.
“Odisha has a good mix of thermal and hydro power generation in the ratio of 70 per cent and 30 per cent. A solar power generation policy is being drafted by the Government and expected to be released soon,” he said,
Vishal Agarwal of the ICC presented a list of suggestions to improve the performance of the sector. The suggestions included speedy land acquisition, faster statutory clearances and better road, rail and port infrastructures to transport coal. Coal linkage to power plants and clear guidelines on renewable energy were also mentioned as important areas.
Sudipta Das of the Ernst and Young said Odisha has earned more than Rs5,000 crore in recent years by exporting power to other States, but this achievement masks the fact that the transmission loss is over 40 per cent; power generation is low compared to installed capacity; and access to power by the users is still difficult.
State Bank of India Chief General Manager KM Trivedy, presenting his views on the state of financial health of the energy sector, said the bank has financed over Rs1.5 lakh crore in this sector out of which about 80 per cent is in power generation.
GRIDCO and Odisha Power Transmission Corporation CMD Hemant Sharma lamented the emphasis on power generation while neglecting the transmission and distribution sector. Referring to the figures cited by Trivedy as an example, he said, “Each rupee invested in generation should see a similar investment in transmission too.”
Sharma also rued the policy confusion of the Government of India in the matter of involvement of private players in the power distribution sector. “The policy confusion there can be summed up by saying that the right hand does not know what the left is doing,” he remarked.
Principal Secretary, Energy Department Pradeep Kumar Jena summarised the experience of the entire privatisation of energy distribution in the State, saying, “The private partners did not invest anything in upgrading the networks while the Central Government closed some funding channels because of privatization.” He said coal linkage is a problem that the Central Government is looking into, and the feasibility of linkage from the Odisha Mining Corporation needs to be studied in detail. A vote of thanks was offered by ICC executive member, Odisha expert committee JB Pany.