The Hindu

Mangalore, Jun 3: Around 25,000 MW captive power is generated in India, mostly through diesel generator sets and a bulk of it is used by private companies to tide over power shortage. If this captive power is connected to the grid and is made available to companies willing to pay for it, the power shortage in the country can be mitigated to a great extent, managing director of Tata Power Trading Company Ltd. Amulya Charan has said.

Delivering the key-note address at the "Southern India MSME Meet-2008", organised by Chamber of Small Industry Association here on Sunday, Mr. Charan said while the grid connected power generation capacity in India is 1.45-lakh MW, the actual availability is 1.10-lakh MW. Plans are afoot to add 78,000 MW power during the 11th Five Year Plan, he said.

The demand for power was increasing at eight to 10 per cent a year in our country. The Electricity Act 2003 had unshackled the power sector by allowing private companies to set up power plants, subject to certain mandatory clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Pollution Control Boards. The intended 78,000 MW of power to be generated and made available to the grid would be accomplished in a phased manner, he said.

Stating that the nation becoming power surplus in the next decade was highly unlikely, Mr. Charan said the only way out was to provide favourable conditions for power generated from captive generation units to join the grid. Efforts should be made to look at alternative sources of power such as wind, hydro, biomass, bagasse and solar energies which were low on carbon dioxide emission. These had shorter gestation periods and could go online at short notice.

"The Union Government provides incentives by way of carbon credit trading for companies which produce clean power," he said.