By Narendra Taneja

Recently on this page, Jyotiraditya Scindia attacked the Modi government for what he perceives are its failures in the power sector (‘We’re Being Kept in the Dark’).

It is surprising that a former Union minister of state for power is unaware of the federal structure of this country.

The Constitution puts power as a concurrent subject.

The Centre is primarily responsible for generation and transmission to the states, the states for last-mile distribution. Recent revelations from UP show that the infrastructure paid for by the Centre is unutilised (including in Nagla Fatela) and electricity is not being supplied to the newly connected villages. So, in UP, the fault lies with the Samajwadi Party government and the state discom, whose responsibility it is to ensure power distribution.

Scindia has claimed that rural electrification was ‘faster’ in the UPA regime than it is under the NDA. In a marathon, maintaining the pace in the last kilometre is more important than what happens in the first 10 kilometres. The UPA failed to maintain its tempo.

The electrification trend worsened from 2011 onwards and it was worst during Scindia’s tenure. In 2012-13, only 2,587 villages were newly electrified. In 2013-14, this reduced to a pitiful 1,197. The Modi government reversed this negative trend.

When the Modi government came to power, it fundamentally changed the erstwhile Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana by including habitations with population less than 100 people, creating 100% access to all households, introducing feeder segregation and smart metering, etc. The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana became a more comprehensive scheme. The GARV app giving real-time data on electrification brought out the highest levels of transparency and accountability.

The UPA government stalled generation capacity worth thousands of megawatts in legal and environmental mires. The present government untangled the mess and increased the thermal capacity by a fifth (46,543 MW) in two years. In 2014, gas plants of 14,305 MW capacity (out of a total 24,150 MW) had no supply of domestic gas. The Modi government resolved this issue. In 2014, as many as two-third of the major coal plants faced critical coal stocks.

Coal India’s production grew by 6.9 per cent in 2014-15, and this growth rose further to 9.0 per cent in 2015-16. This government has recognised the long-term hazards of overdependence on thermal plants. It radically increased the target of solar capacity by fivefold, from 20,000 MW in 2022 to 1,00,000 MW.

From 2,632 MW at the end of 2013-14 to 7,805 MW at the end of August, the government has tripled solar capacity. It has also tendered new projects of nearly 20,900 MW in 2015-16 itself. In 2014-16, 50,215 circuit km (ckm) transmission lines were laid, 1.5 times more than the 33,855 ckm in 2012-14. It increased capacity to south India by 71 per cent, from 3,450 MW in 2013-14 to 5,900 MW, resulting in adrastic fall in power prices for these states.

Further, transmission projects worth over Rs 1lakh crore have been initiated in only two years. Scindia is right in identifying discoms as the weakest link in the power value chain. In end -2013-14, discoms accumulated losses of Rs 3.2 lakh crore and 96 per cent of these were incurred during the UPA 2 regime. By putting the discoms’ balance sheets on the state’s account, the scheme automatically puts pressure on states to resolve their operational and financial difficulties.

The UPA operated with a 20thcentury mindset. Against long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) as a source of power, the market has moved to a modern system where each discom now estimates its short-term, medium-term and long-term power requirement and plans accordingly.

The Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price (DEEP) portal with transparent bidding has led to a reduction in short-term power prices for discoms. Electricity generation during the entire UPA tenure (2004-14) grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.65 per cent. From 2012-14, this was just 5.02 per cent. From 2014-16, the CAGR was 7.03 per cent. In a democracy, asking questions is good. But it’s better if the questions are backed by facts and logic.

