As all the regional grids in the country have been synchronised, now inter-State transmission needs attention, said Devendra Chaudhry, Additional Secretary in the Union Ministry of Power.
Speaking at the Elecrama meet, the mega conference of power distributors in Bangalore, Chaudhry said likeminded States need to invest in and share power resources.
“From this month, 2,000 MW flow into the southern grid is happening. This needs to be judiciously used as inter-State transmission is crucial,” he added.
Rural market
Electrical and electronics manufacturers should explore untapped rural market and also aggressively target the industry, he said.
“In the last three decades, penetration of rural consumption has not increased significantly. It is only around 15 per cent. Industrial consumption has not increased either,” said Chaudhry.
Giving reasons, he said, “Farmers do not have power in the fields; increase in overall consumption will be possible if we energise pump sets.”
The industry needs to take note of Union government’s initiatives for power sector. We are adding one lakh circuit kilometres of distribution, 2.8 MUA transmission lines, said Chaudhry.
Talking about coal linkage, he said, “About 60,000 MW coal linkage has been tied up and we expect significant amount of power will be generated in both 12th and 13th plan.”
Gas shortage
“Gas is not there for power generation. We need to import. We are experiencing 75 to 80 per cent shortfall due to failure of KGD,” he said.
There has been lot of positives in renewable. States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka have taken the lead. The Centre has taken up $8-billion programme for power evacuation. Also €1 billion grant and assistance from the German Government and private lender KFW will have huge impact on the country, said Chaudhry.
Karnataka scene
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on the occasion that the State would become a power-surplus State by 2017, thus ending the electricity shortage in the State.
“The State government has initiated several power projects to the tune of 18,000 MW across Karnataka, both in the conventional and non-conventional sectors, and they are at different states of implementation. Karnataka will, in all probability, be a power surplus State by 2017,” he said.
“As the Indian electrical equipment industry has matured over the years, India is becoming a major sourcing destination for the global players. That is why we are showcasing global competitiveness of Indian products and the capability to develop world class engineering products at competitive costs,” Raj Eswaran, President, the Indian Electrical and Electronics Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA).
“With good demand for products at competitive costs, we the industry is targeting $25 billion in global trade in the next 10 years from current $1 billion levels. I am confident that at Elecrama 2014 there will be many deals to boost exports of Indian products,” said Sanjeev Sardana, Chairman, Elecrama 2014.
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