By Anupama Airy
India’s power sector that was marred by continuous shortages and lack of quality and steady supplies to homes and factories has seen an unprecedented turnaround in the past three years.
Today the country boasts of a situation where surplus power to the tune of 3000-4000 mw is available on real time basis at any time of the day to states and distribution companies and at affordable rates on the power exchange.
The ease of getting power at affordable rates comes on the back of focussed reforms unleashed by the Modi government over the past three years in the power sector.
Within three years, India’s total power capacity has increased by nearly one third (31% or an addition of 76,577 MW) from 243GW in March 2014 to 320 GW in Mar 2017 and the conventional or coal based power capacity (which is the mainstay of the country’s overall power capacity) has increased by 26% (one fourth) from 214 GW in Mar 2014 to 270 GW in Mar 2017.
Energy shortages in 2014 were 42,428 million units (4.2%), which came down to 7,459 MU in 2017 (0.7%). Similarly, peak energy shortage in 2014 was 6,103 MW (4.5%) which came down to 2,608 MW (1.6%) in 2017
The power generation growth in the past three years is 6.4% from 2014-2017 (provisional). Generation growth would have increased further but for Energy Efficiency activities like UJALA, which have been the focus of our Government since 2014. In 2014-16, growth was 6.9% & if we add the generation avoided due to energy efficiency activities it was 9.5%
Significantly, India has turned around from a net importer of electricity to net exporter of electricity exporting around 5,798 Million Units to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in 2017
Three Years Of Modi Government; A Big Turnaround In India’s Power Sector added by Anupama Airy on
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Anupama Airy
Currently, Writing a Book for Penguin India Titled Greased Pole:How Politics and Lobbying Stifled India's Energy Dreams. The author can be reached on anupama.airy@gmail.com (9810661825)
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