The Government has pegged the country’s power requirement at 19,04,861 MU (million units) by 2021-22, or the last year of the 13th Plan period, which is an astounding 91.3 per cent more than 9,95,557 MU that was required in 2012-13 - the first year of the ongoing 12th Plan period. At the same time, despite growing requirement of electricity across the country, the deficit in demand-supply of power has remained consistent in the first three years of the 12th Plan period, the only positive being that the gap has gradually narrowed during this span of time.
According to data available with The Pioneer, in 2012-13 out of the total requirement of 9,95,557 MU of electricity, only 9,08,652 MU could be made available, and therefore the deficit was of 8.7 per cent. In 2013-14 out of the requirement of 10,02,257 MU, only 9,59,829 MU could be provided for, and this led to a deficit of 4.2 per cent. The shortfall for FY14 though was 50 per cent less than that of FY13. Similarly in the ongoing FY15, between April 2014 and January 2015 - the requirement was 9,03,104 MU, but the availability fell short by 3.8 per cent and stood at 8,68,591 MU. Here again the deficit was lesser than that of FY14.
For the remaining two years of the 12th Plan period, the electricity requirement is projected to go up considerably compared to the current fiscal. For example, in 2015-16 the power requirement is pegged at 12,48,081 MU, which is a significant 38 per cent more than 9,03,104 MU of the current fiscal (till January 2015). Also for the last year of the 12th Plan period, i.e. 2016-17, the requirement has been estimated at 13,54,874 MU which is 8.5 per cent more than that of FY16.
While the power requirement is expected to go up with each passing year, it is the deficit in supply which has been a major cause of concern for the Government. Though it has considerably narrowed down during the three consecutive fiscals (including the ongoing FY15), owing to various reasons like inconsistent supply of coal to thermal power plants and lack of upgradation of the existing transmission lines across the country, the problem is likely to remain for some time.
The NDA Government has indicated a lot of intent towards improving the power supply situation. It has asked Coal India ltd (CIl, which meets over 80 per cent requirement of the dry fuel of the country) to take its annual production to 30 per cent by 2019 and achieve 1 billion tonne target. More significantly it has initiated the auction of 204 coal blocks (which had been cancelled by the Supreme Court last year), and kept a significant number of reserves for the power sector with the aim of expediting supply to thermal plants and improve electricity supply across the nation in the long run.
The Power Ministry has also announced a clutch of new electricity generation schemes apart from starting the process of capacity addition of transmission lines and focussing on improving power supply through renewable energy sources. Cutting out the deficit in demand-supply chain though is a long haul and according to industry experts, the announcements made in the recent past need to be implemented with all seriousness if the end result has to be met with considerable success.