Power-starved Uttar Pradesh is targetting per capita power consumption of 1,000 kilo Watt hour (KWh) by 2014, up from a dismal 340 KWh at present. UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) has charted a three-pronged strategy on the recommendation of Energy Task Force (ETF), which entails setting up power projects under public private partnership (PPP) model, buying power from other sources and ramping up generation by state-owned units.
The state is facing acute power crisis with the total availability of power, both from generation and import from other sources, standing at roughly 6,000 Megawatt (Mw) against the total demand of over 9,500 Mw. Large parts of the state are subjected to long outages to bridge the shortfall.
UP’s population would cross 200 million by 2012 and to meet the desired annual per capita availability of 1,000 units and with 5 per cent growth rate, approximately 25,000 Mw additional power generation would be required in the 12th Five-Year Plan apart from scheduled capacity additions.
Acknowledging the challenges, UPPCL chairman and managing director Navneet Sehgal said a “well-defined” plan for boosting power availability in the state to attain almost 45,000 Mw during the 12th Plan had been laid out on the recommendations of ETF headed by the chief secretary. “We plan to not only attain 1,000 KWh per capita consumption level by 2014 as a benchmark at par with national projections, but also to become a power surplus state,” he added.