Power still hobbles industrialisation in UP

The state, however, is targeting capacity addition to the tune of 10,000 Mw in the 11th Plan.

Ask any industry captain about investment opportunities in Uttar Pradesh and chances are the answer would be in the affirmative only if the infrastructure and power sectors could be better. Power has long been the nemesis for the industrial development in Uttar Pradesh, which has to routinely import power from other sources.

Nonetheless, the state government is targeting power capacity addition to the tune of 10,000 Megawatt (Mw) in the 11th Five-Year Plan in collaboration with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) and others in the private sector, such as Reliance and Lanco.

The objective is to ultimately move to 24-hour power supply regime, a far cry from power cuts and rostering at present.

Various projects are being implemented in the state sector, private sector and JV for setting up electricity generation units to achieve the massive target. At present, while the total production capacity of all the power generating units in UP roughly add up to 5,500 Mw, the demand hovers around 8,000 Mw.

The chasm between demand and supply widens around summers starting from May. The industrial belts in UP such as Kanpur, Ferozabad and Ghaziabad are the hardest hit, while the domestic consumers learn to live with the routine power outages.

Recently, the cash-starved UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) sought Rs 1,800 crore from the state government for improving the supply situation in the short term. The immediate mandate given to the corporation is to increase the number of hours of power supply to rural areas. Electricity is subsidised in the rural areas at the cost of industrial consumers, which the industry chambers lament adding this phenomenon of cross-subsidy is affecting the margins of the industrial units.

However, the sector is not only faced with increased demand by domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, but low level of power generation, power theft and pilferage.

Outdated and obsolete power plant machinery is also often cited as one of the reasons for low generation in the state.

Moving fast to ameliorate the prevailing situation, the state government is vigourously following the public-private partnership (PPP) model in the sector and already some projects such as Roza and Anpara C have been awarded to private power utilities through bidding.

In this series, Meja, Lalitpur, Obra and Anpara D Thermal Power Projects are being developed under JVs.

A thermal power plant is in the pipeline in association with the NTPC. A 4,000-Mw power plant is being set up in Lalitpur district of the impoverished Bundelkhand region.

While the Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) entails an investment in the region of over Rs 20,000 crore, over 2,500 acres of land would be acquired for the purpose, UPPCL Chairman G Pattanaik told Business Standard.

"The preliminary survey has already been completed and things will start moving soon in this direction," he added.

Once commissioned, the power plant would go a long way in mitigating the challenges faced by the power-starved UP, which has to import electricity from the central sector, besides resorting to rostering to make ends meet.

The UMPP is expected to give a great fill-up to Bundelkhand, which has become synonymous with backwardness and economic laggardness in UP.

BHEL is setting up a 1,000-Mw thermal power plant in Anpara D. Northern Coalfields of Coal India Limited (CIL) will provide fuel for the project.

In another step, the UPPCL has undertaken a massive drive to install superior technology conductors along supply lines to check power pilferage.

The corporation is installing Ariel Bunch Conductors (ABCs), which provide an excellent replacement for bare conductors, thereby eliminating the possibility of power theft by hooking, vernacularly known as 'katia'. ABCs also eliminate interruptions of feeders and thereby increase system reliability.

A pilot project has been completed and the corporation has set a target of installing ABCs for 10,000 kms of supply line in the first phase.

Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses account for almost 7.5-10 per cent of massive power pilferages, while power theft is also rampant in UP.

Under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), the corporation has vigourously taken up rural electrification and setting up new sub-stations in the rural hinterland. The gram sabha land is being acquired for the purpose.

The corporation has also undertaken renovation of its existing plants on a massive scale to tide over the power crisis. In the short term, the UPPCL is planning to import power from the hill state of Himachal Pradesh.