(a) whether the Government have made any study in power generation system/technology of advanced countries like U.S.A., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, Japan and Singapore;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government propose to adopt their system of generation and distribution of power in the country; and
(d) if so, the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to make the country self-sufficient in the power sector?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF POWER
( SHRIMATI JAYAWANTI MEHTA )
(a) to (d) : While the Government has not made any formal study
of power generation system technology in various advanced
countries, it is fully aware of the system and technologies in
use.
In the conventional mode of generation almost all
developed countries of the world have broadly three sources of
generation namely, thermal, hydro and nuclear. They have also
harnessed non-conventional energy sources, like wind, solar,
biogas etc.
All the four types of generation mentioned above
are also available in India. The installed capacity by the end
of March, 2000 was 97,836.88 MW comprising 70186.16 MW thermal,
23816.01 MW hydro, 2680 MW nuclear and 1154.71 MW from wind.
During the last decade, a number of initiatives
have been taken by the Government to improve the power position.
It began with the amendment of Indian Electricity Act, 1910 and
Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 wherein private sector was allowed
to invest in power generation. A series of measures have been
taken thereafter in terms of streamlining the procedures and
raising the limit of foreign equity participation in the power
sector to promote investments in the power sector. The
Government also announced hydel policy in 1998, a revised mega
power policy in November, 1998 and further enacted the
Electricity Laws (Amendment) Act, 1998 in order to give fillip to
the transmission sector. Private sector participation in
transmission was also made possible. Reforms and restructuring,
of late, has been the thrust area of the Government wherein
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission was set up in 1998 to
rationalise tariffs. Separately, 14 other States have set up on
their own regulatory commissions. The latest policy initiative
of the Government is to under take 100% metering in a time bound
manner and finish the entire process by the end of December,
2001. The Government has been encouraging the setting up of
power projects through a transparent process of competitive
bidding which ensures the supply and adoption of the most
advanced and efficient generation and transmission technologies.