Taking charge after two-days of massive power breakdown, new Union Power Minister Veerappa Moily promised to put in place mechanisms aimed at reforming the beleaguered sector.“We will take all measures necessary to improve grid security and bring about reforms. These would include islanding parts of the grid, increasing congestion charges, identifying the fault lines in the grid and imposing penalty for overdrawing power,”
Moily has called a meeting on August 6 with chief ministers of states affected by the recent power crisis. Chief secretaries and principal secretaries in charge of power of all the affected states will also meet power secretary P Uma Shankar on the same day to discuss remedial measures.Responding to speculation that heavy overdrawal by northern states might have led to Tuesday’s collapse of the three regional grids, Moily said it was not the time to indulge in a blame-game. “We must wait for the report of the expert group,” he said.
Moily said the Northern Grid failure on Monday had led to a generation loss of 32,000 Mw, while around 50,000 Mw was lost from the central and state power generating stations on Tuesday as the Eastern and North-Eastern grids also tripped.Moily said the task at hand was to reduce aggregate technical & commercial losses to around 12 per cent from an average of 28 per cent nationally. He said all states have the funds required for reforming the distribution sector, and the Centre will incentivise utilisation of the funds. Power Secretary P Uma Shankar said the discussions on islanding were still at a preliminary stage.
The basic, however, is to ensure supply to specific geographic regions and essential services remains intact in the event of a crisis of a nature on Tuesday.
Moily also said that the task at hand is to bring down Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses to around 12 per cent from an average of 28 per cent nationally. He added that all states have the funds required for reforming distribution sector but the centre will incentivize utilization of funds. Mounting losses of distribution utilities was a matter of concern, he said.
