Energy Generation In India

India has shortfal of 18gigawatt. The peak load of 130GW is mainly derived from Thermal,Hyroelectric and other Non-Conventiaonal Sources such as Nuclear,Wind,Solar etc. Being Fifth largest producer and fourth Biggest consumer of electiricity the power reforms is an early need of hour.
  Let us discuss one by one each method and its future. Thermal power is largest source of electricity generation produces elecrticity using coal based or gas based power plants. Though it is the costliest eleftricity generation method still it is used for its hugh quantum capacity. The UMPP (Ultra Mega Power Plant) can range upto 6-9 GW can be established within 2-3 years work and immediatley commisioned. Raw material like coal,gas and abudnacy of water are essence to have Thermal Power Plant. NTPC emerged as biggest player in this area and contributes around 85% of total Thermal Power Generation. To meet the shortfall of Power GOI has given clerance to many Thermal Power Plant in 12 Five Year Plan. Still around 300 million rural population is away from electricity. The supply available in Urban areas too intremitant and irregular. The electriciy prices from thermal plants mainly depends on raw material supply due to which the GOI has subsidised the Coal Mine Explorer to have uninteruppted supply of Coal to Power plants and cost effectiveness. However the recent irregulations in mining sector will significantly affect on this area and soon we will have a hefty increase in prices of electricity from these plants breaching the earlier contracts. The huge availiablity of Gas in KGDB has made a hope to have Gas based UM Power Plants using this natural resources however one Private Business Conglomorate has systematically grab control of these National Resources. Serious review is needed on this Irregularities and attempt must be made to nationalise these entities.
  Second method is Hydroelectric Power Generation. Though this is the cheapest method and pollution free still not fully utlised. With installed capacity of 94GW assuming 60% load factor our current capacity is only 34GW. The construction of HydrPower Plant includes construction of Storage dam and this dam is also utilised in other purpose. So the problem Irrigation department facing are also faced by Power however during summer when demand for elecrticity and water is at peak its difficult to match the peak load demand. The water is kept reserved for drinking and Irrigation Purpose. This fluctuates the generion capacity. Still there is a lot of scope for Hydro Power Projects for which a real groundwork is needed than only policymaking. Small hydro power plants could be promoted as they have generation additional capacity 9GW and can nurture the demand of small towns eftectively. State rub NHPC leads this sector.
  Third major source is Atomic Power Generation. A lot of debate is already going on and some so called nature lovers are dominany opposing the use of atomic energy.
In my opinion, the electricity generation through atomic energy is an essential major required to be immediately implemented. As electricity generation is cheaper and UMPP can be easily set without disturbing the ecology. However the technology required for this is still to be developed here. Thourium can be fusioned and enrich plutonium is abundantly available in India. However the Proposed power plants in India are Urenium based and the technology is need to be imported causing invariable profits to global power companies. This is again a debatable issue. However the quantum of power output and history of India's NCPEL functioning of such plants it always preffered source of energy.
Fourth method is through wind energy. This method has been rapidly become popular in last decade with promotion of renewable energy sources and least pollution India have achieved fourth largest wind powrr generation capacity and Pvt players have dominance in this sector. Land acquisition and secuirty of material are the two key issues which need immediate attention to have sustainability in this sector. A capacity of 102 GW is possible through it. MINISTRY OF NEW RESOURCES AND REBEWABLE ENERGY is estimating to add 6GW new projects till 2013.
Other forms include Solar, Captive,Small Hydroelectric Plants are also need to considered for planning the future demand.

Irrigation Projects

The systematic way of use of water for agriculture, municipalities is called as irrigation. In country like India which receives precipitation only in rainy season, so during rainy season the storage of water is carried out in water tanks, lakes, dams and this stored water is then utilized for entire period. This lifecycle is so designed to have optimum use of water for whole season. India has highest area of irrigated land in world. The irrigation systems has history of pre British rule period. Fud system and shah canal are examples of this. British made foundation of irrigation system by constructing Dams: earthen as well as gravity types. The dams are useful not only in irrigation but also in flood mitigation, power generation. The water stored is supplied through irrigation chanels called canals.
Though India have highest irrigated land but the per hectare yield of crop is much lower compared to developed system such as Israel.
This is the major area of improvement. A country whose entire economy lies on output of agriculture sector and 55% jobs are still related to it making it largest sector of economic distribution it is much essential to.have high output per hecatre to complete the food demand.
In India the irrgation works are carried out by state governments as well central.The role of union govt is analyse and approve the major essential projects.
Recently it was highlighted that major Irrigation Projects cost has been substantially increased and there are several scams. However it is the only one side of coin which media highlighted to increase the TRP.
The Projects have a defined lifecycle, defined parameters and defined Structural designs.Based on which they get awarded. However, during actual execution many factor affects the cost of projects.These factors are must to be considered and there should be healthy discussions so as to have a conclusive idea about cost escalations. The projects have a time period in tender. However during actual execution the land required for projects is mostly not cleared in country like India, where policy for acquisition of land is yet to refrain. This considerable time span has increase the cost in many ways. The land cost itself is increasing in astronomical passion. Construction materials cement, sand, steel have seen tremendous rise in prices. Opposition to specific land and request of diversion of route for canals again results in cost over runs. The fuel prices are also sharply increased more than double the economy. Cost of rehabilitation has not been mostly considered while preparing the DPR (Detailed Project Reports). This are uncontrollable factors and cannot be specifically estimated at the time of preparation of DPR.


Let us have a look on Narmada Dam. The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on the Narmada River near Navagam, Gujarat, India. It is the largest dam and part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada River. The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity. This dam is partly completed in 2008, around 31 years after which it was planned. There is displacement of around 2 lakh people including rehabilitation cost. The entire DPR cost was 650 crore in 1980 is escalated to 40,000 crore. So does it mean Govt made 39,350 Crore rupees scam is the question. If we focus on the parameters mentioned then we will realize that the land cost, material cost, idle charges of machinery, delays during court matters have affect this in major way. Now a days a new trend has been set by local politicos is to intervene the Infrastructure Projects and oppose them to have their own benefits. This has hampered the growth of our economy and the pace is just 4.5%-5% as per S&P remarks. So shall we focus on facts than the “paid writers” impractical solutions such as not have large dams and blab blab la.

Disasters and Management

Recently I have visited the office of Disasater Management Cell of Mumbai.There was dedicated helplines,fully functioning servers and screens giving exact information of Rainfall,water levels, backup options in major water streams and Pumping functionalities. The office, though, a Government one have centralize air condition,indoor canteen and a very neat and cleaned hygenic atmosphere. One team was constantly handing the phone calls from citizes and compiling their queries in database.Another was analyzing that information and resolving the issues. Many questions asked by citizen were not at all related with Disaster Management however they aslo directed to proper authorities for their further compliance.The head of cell was sitting within the team and dictacting them with very friendly nature. The chief looks forward his subordinate as individual head of the assigned task and he is just sailing the ship. Even he was helping one fellow to learn english language. This is the right approach to have a healthy work atmosphere Govt Organisations especially in cell like disaster management where one have to work for 24*7*365. In recent communal tension this cell has played vital role and first aid was made available to police employees injured in Mass attack. In overall manner the cell is really working is systematic manner and have record of attending the spot withing 4 hours.

How this happend? There was a devastating flood in 1990 causing major loss of livehood of peoples of Munbai.Government in its usual fashion set a committee and appoint a consultant MWH.They together prepared a report in 1993 called as BRIMSTOWAD. The Governemet was inert and kept the report in bag as it was required Rs.601 crore for renovation of Storn water drains,constructing pumping stations. The report was again opened only after deludge of 26 July,2005. The 26 July had already caused loss of worth Rs.1.2 lakh crore,highest ever in Modern history if india. Now the questions comes whoes 1.2 lakh crore it was? and who is responsible for it? The amount 600 Crore is just 0.5% of the loss.This is the real problem.Our After the deludge PM declared BRIMSTOWAD as national Project and funded 1200 Crores.Apart from these huge grant MCGM come in big way carried out other sub works and set up a fast track body for fight againt water-logging problem which every year causes loss of 2-5 working day of finacial capital of India. One day of closure of Mumbai means loss of 15000 Crore rupees. MCGM worked very hard to implement BRIMSTOWAD,set up a dedicated Disaster Management Cell at and its branch offices at 26 LOCATIONS. The authorisation Matrix and responsibilities are designated to authorities. Now it is not only flood management cell but it is fully functional Disaster Mgmt Cell which has flood mgmt as one operation,rescue of people n natural calamaties is another,rehabilating affected poeple is next one. This loss of 1.2 lakh crore has reviewed seriously by both state as well as central Govt and an Act called Disaster Management act,2005 was made effective in state as well as national level.The National Institute of Disaster Management constituted under the Disaster Management Act 2005 has been entrusted with the nodal national responsibility for human resource development, capacity building, training, research, documentation and policy advocacy in the field of disaster management. The local D.M.or Collector was made head of District Disaster Management head.A institute is formed called National Disaster Managemet Authority and separate dedicated staff is recruited,trained for it. This team has acted in best manner saving lives of thousand of Indians during Tsunami Waves,earthquakes,floods and even in collapse of old buildings. Equiping the authoirty with concrete cutter machines,4 airoplanes to immediatley reach at affected areas and deligation of powers to NDMA has made the job quite easier.During floods on Kosi River of Bihar the NDMA has saved 1400 people's life.Now it is planned to set NDMA offices at every region in this five year plan.This is the welcome move by our policymakers.

Controlling the Anger of Public is the biggest challenge for Government:

With series of scams the UPA-2 Government is facing public anger and the rising inflation puts more oil in this flame. It is surprising that BJP the biggest opposition party, instead of making good use of this opportunity, started quarrelling among them with L K Advani’s controversial blog The IAC and team Anna already lost the last hope of public to have some charisma ending these astronomical high prices of commodities. The real problem of this anger is the high prices. A common man can’t afford house in city due to triple rates in last 3 years so adoption for rent house or shifting to cheaper place far from center point of city causes high traveling cost and time losses again adds anger. The vegetable and food prices are rising weekly. However the wages and salaries are not inflated in such a speed. The subsidy on fuels has been removed partly and make a record hikes in fuel prices. Again this inflated the transportation costs. The policy of privatization of Road by BOT option adds toll burden on public again price hike. So the basic needs of Housing, food, traveling are costing tremendously higher than they actual should be and brings frustration to the common man. The entry of private player in power sector was made with an ambition to have fair competition and early construction of power projects to meet our deficit of 18 GiggaWatts. However neither there was fare game nor any players has made assured supply of electricity on contrary the poorest transmission and distribution made nothing in rise of the electricity deficit . This theft cost simply recovered from common man by CEC by hiking prices. The central bank on the name of controlling inflation and liquidity in market continued the hikes in interest rates. So nothing is going down in this country. Even one want to suicide the pesticides prices are also Quadra poled in last 3 years.

          Now the UPA-2 is preparing for 2014 election for which Sonia Gandhi wants new schemes to be launched for appealing voters and our new Chief Economic Adviser wants least interference of Government in Markets. The Harvard graduate finmin P Chidambram is on toes weather to save this nation from this inflation monster or to increase the deficit for upcoming elections so they have chosen the best path to do nothing. People were suppoting Baba and Anna because they have filmy hope that one day a revolution will soon happen ending this high price monster, however instead of doing fast we must now unite and put up a firm plan to end this.

          We need reforms is a common dialogue and our paid columnist like Chetan Bhagat are shouting this from long ago. However I will say we need plan for implementation of policies and their feedback control, review, reconciliation mechanism. The reforms in Natural Resource Policy Allocation will immediately ease the burden. The reforms in fuel pricing control, profit sharing in State own resources and fixation of fair prices is a need of hour. However for this a healthy discussion and policy formation is to be carried out on fast track basis in our parliament instead of adjourning. Shall we work on the problems instead of fasting?