UP to Bihar: Power supply dips in rural areas of some major states

Bhopura in Ghaziabad, barely 20 km from central Delhi, has, over the past 30 days, been facing power cuts running into 8-10 hours a day. Rain plays havoc as electricity supply is cut in advance.

Bhopura is not an exception. Several towns and villages in UP are complaining about unscheduled power cuts, which led to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reprimanding officials and asking them to ensure “uninterrupted power supply”.

But it is an uphill task for the state, given the dire power supply situation. The data reviewed by Business Standard shows average power supply in the state’s rural areas decreased to 16.03 hours in 2022-23 from about 19.1 hours in 2018-19, a drop of 16 per cent.

Urban power supply during the same period rose marginally by 1.7 per cent.

UP’s villages, however, are not the only ones suffering. Major states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh have seen a significant reduction in power supply to their rural areas, according to a presentation made by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to the Ministry of Power in April this year.

Average daily power supply in rural India last fiscal year was 20.55 hours as against 20.7 hours in 2018-19, according to the CEA data. However, the Union Ministry of Power told this newspaper it stood at 20.6 hours last fiscal year, taking into account the fact the CEA data was till February 2023.

The CEA is the technical advisory body of the ministry. The data presented by the CEA shows average daily power supply in urban areas of certain states is also not up to the mark. According to the presentation, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and West Bengal are the ones where urban power supply has failed to go back to pre-pandemic levels.

“The state-wise data of rural and urban power supply was reviewed by the minister (R K Singh) and it was observed that the rural supply in some of the states like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Tripura and UP etc. is less than 20 hours,’’ a source aware of the development said. The states were told to improve their rural power supply immediately. It was stressed by the minister that it is the duty of the discoms to give 24 hours’ supply in both rural and urban areas, the source said.

The Union power ministry, in a written response to the newspaper, however, said the national average power supply in 2022-23 (data till March 2023) was “generally in the same range” as it was in 2018-19 -- at 23.8 hours in urban India and 20.6 hours in rural India.

The CEA’s data (till February 2023) showed it was 23.7 hours in urban India.

Pointing out that a variation in the data was possible because it was collected through communicable meters installed in feeders, the ministry said average daily power supply in rural areas had increased to 20.6 hours in FY23 from 12.5 hours in FY14.

“The government of India and ministry of power had taken up a joint initiative (from) 2014 to 2017 with all states/UTs and prepared specific action plan documents for providing 24x7 power supply to all households, industrial and commercial consumers and adequate supply of power to agricultural consumers, (in accordance with) the state policy,” said the secretary, Ministry of Power, in a written response to Business Standard.

On reduction in average daily power supply in rural areas of states such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, he said supply and distribution were done by the state government concerned.

He further said the Centre had helped states through its various schemes including the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and Integrated Power Development Scheme.

“Under the recently launched Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), state power distribution utilities (or discoms) are being financially supported to strengthen distribution infrastructure to improve power supply in the country. There is adequate power generation and transmission capacity in the country to meet full demand.”

Household-level power supply data is collected through 11 kv feeders. There are 169,000 rural feeders and 77,458 urban ones. In order to ensure that the agriculture segment receives uninterrupted power supply, the Centre has directed the states to segregate rural feeders and have separate ones for households and agriculture.

Power demand in the country crossed the historic high of 220 Gw last month.