Contradicting the Maharashtra government’s claim about capacity addition, the recent Economic Survey has warned that the state can’t sustain the ongoing economic growth unless it improves its pathetic power sector. The report also highlights rising transmission and distribution (T&D) losses questioning the efficacy of various measures being under taken by the state to bring it down.
Besieged by an unprecedented power crisis, with the shortfall rising to 5,700 MW, the Congress-NCP government has been making tall claims about the capacity addition. A couple of months ago, the energy ministry released details of various plants that were to start power generation in the year 2006.
Maharashtra’s total generation as on December 31, 2006 was 49,352 million KWH which is less by 2.2% than that in the corresponding period of the previous year, the survey states.
The survey, released last Thursday, has had a critical look at the state’s pathetic power sector. “The state is highly industrialised where the demand for electricity is very high and rising continuously. However, there has been no capacity addition in the recent past,” the survey notes.
More serious, however, is warning about the worsening power situation in the state. “The aggravating gap between demand and supply raises questions concerning the sustainability of economic growth in future for the state,” the survey cautions. As the state is power deficit, the load shedding has become a regular feature, the survey says. “This critically impacts the state’s economic competitiveness,” the survey notes candidly.
The report also takes a close look at various MoUs it signed with over dozen private players to set up power plants in the state a couple of years back. The MoUs have been signed but the implementation has been slow, it states. It advises the state government that the “pace of action in the sector needs to be given a momentum with a time frame for implementation of these projects”.
It has also come down heavily on power leakage in the state. The T&D losses in Maharashtra have been recorded at 32.6% “which are high in comparison with international average”, notes the survey. During 2005-06 the T&D losses had reduced to 28% as compared to 31.1% in 2004-05. However the losses again went up to 32.6% this year, the report says. It further states that “with this kind of losses the power sector is rendered financially unviable”. Inadequate investment in T&D infrastructure has resulted in power evacuation constraints.
Besieged by an unprecedented power crisis, with the shortfall rising to 5,700 MW, the Congress-NCP government has been making tall claims about the capacity addition. A couple of months ago, the energy ministry released details of various plants that were to start power generation in the year 2006.
The survey, however, not only exposes the state’s all claims about capacity addition but also highlights the fact that its power generation has actually gone down instead.
Maharashtra’s total generation as on December 31, 2006 was 49,352 million KWH which is less by 2.2% than that in the corresponding period of the previous year, the survey states.
The survey, released last Thursday, has had a critical look at the state’s pathetic power sector. “The state is highly industrialised where the demand for electricity is very high and rising continuously. However, there has been no capacity addition in the recent past,” the survey notes.
More serious, however, is warning about the worsening power situation in the state. “The aggravating gap between demand and supply raises questions concerning the sustainability of economic growth in future for the state,” the survey cautions. As the state is power deficit, the load shedding has become a regular feature, the survey says. “This critically impacts the state’s economic competitiveness,” the survey notes candidly.
The report also takes a close look at various MoUs it signed with over dozen private players to set up power plants in the state a couple of years back. The MoUs have been signed but the implementation has been slow, it states. It advises the state government that the “pace of action in the sector needs to be given a momentum with a time frame for implementation of these projects”.
It has also come down heavily on power leakage in the state. The T&D losses in Maharashtra have been recorded at 32.6% “which are high in comparison with international average”, notes the survey. During 2005-06 the T&D losses had reduced to 28% as compared to 31.1% in 2004-05. However the losses again went up to 32.6% this year, the report says. It further states that “with this kind of losses the power sector is rendered financially unviable”. Inadequate investment in T&D infrastructure has resulted in power evacuation constraints.
