Question : Growing Power Demand

(a) whether the Power sector has not been able to induce and sustain the required capacity addition matching the ever growing power demand in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard;

(c) whether the Government has formulated any action plan in view of the fact that increasing power generation costs due to limited fuel availability, poor financial health of State Discoms and high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses have contributed in suppressed demand projections by State Discoms;

(d) if so, the details thereof; and

(e) if not, the reasons therefor?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR POWER, NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY AND THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

( SHRI R.K. SINGH)

(a) to (e) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO.203 TO BE ANSWERED IN THE LOK SABHA ON 05.03.2020 REGARDING GROWING POWER DEMAND.
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(a) & (b) : The growth in generation capacity has not only kept pace with but also surpassed the growth in demand. The growth in installed generation capacity had been around 11% during 2014 to 2016 whereas the growth of energy requirement during this period was around 5%. As on 31.01.2020, the installed generation capacity is around 368 GW, which is sufficient to meet the electricity demand in the country. The maximum peak demand occurred during the current year was around 183 GW. The details of growth in installed generation capacity, the energy availability and energy deficit is given at Annexure.

(c) to (e) : Due to close co-ordination with Ministry of Coal and Railways, the coal supply to power plants have improved and as on 1.3.2020, the coal stock is around 37.5 million tons which is sufficient to run the plants for 21 days.

As a part of power sector reforms, Government of India has taken the following measures to improve the financial health of DISCOMs and facilitate reduction of AT&C losses in the distribution network:
(i) UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) with the objective of improving the operational and financial efficiency of the State DISCOMs, 27 States and 5 UTs had signed MoU and joined UDAY Scheme.

(ii) Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) and Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) were launched to enable States to improve their Distribution infrastructure systems and management of Discoms so that AT&C losses are reduced. Projects under IPDS/DDUGJY schemes envisage creation /augmentation of sub-transmission & distribution infrastructure, metering of distribution transformers/feeders/ consumers, underground (UG) and aerial bunched (AB) cables including IT enablement of distribution infrastructures for reduction of AT&C losses.

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