Dr. K. Gupta is professionally a Sigma Management and energy consultants and his writings are based upon his long consultancy experience. His main aim is to enable the industries to have their entire own generation plants and developing rural power houses to meet rural power requirements. The other aim is to reduce primary energy by about 20 to 30 per cent in almost all sectors of economy. Besides it will improve cost efficiency of conventional power projects through national government policies. Thus, the author has given us useful material for framing energy policies for a developing country. He has also suggested methods for reducing power costs and tariffs.
The twentieth century saw the minimization of human efforts with energy from fossil fuels, whcih in turn are predominantly used for generating electrical power. With electrical power driving the wheels of industries economic development through growth of industries became dominant. Small countries in Europe and Japan with small populations surpassed the industrial growth made by countries like India and China with very large populations. The latter countries did not feel the necessity of mechanisation and even considered depending upon it as a threat to the employment opportunities.
Planning for energy, specially power generation was earnestly taken up after independence in all the five year plans. In the Nehru era the production of electrical power was undertaken through multipurpose hydro-power plants. Subsequently due to longer gestation periods in construction of dams on important rivers the emphasis was shifted to thermal power generation. With poor quality of coal, specially while increasing its production after nationalization with open cast mines, the performance of the power sector had been rather poor in terms of Plant Load Factor (PLF)
and transmission and distribution (T&D) losses inspite of heavy investments in the power sector.
With liberalization, privatization and globalization introduced in 1991 along with devaluation of Indian rupee to over half by the turn of the century the investments reaquired per MW capacity addition in the power sector also doubled in the Eighth Plan to about Rs.40 million per MW, Compared to about 20 percent increase in the earlier three Plans, from Rs.10 to 17 MW.
the government to purchase their power for distribution at
unrealistically high tariffs through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs),
putting the blame for such high tariffs to subsidizing agricultural
power supply. Industries were also thrown open to internation
competition with increased costs of power and other inputs.
Most
industries had their own power generation prior to independence and
almost completed the conversion to purchased power with power tariff of
about 28 paise per unit in 1980.
