THE POWER SECTOR IS PINING ALL HOPES ON THE NEW ELECTRICITY BILL BECAUSE Y2K+2
PROMISES LITTLE ELSE.
The year that is being rung out saw much huffing and puffing in the power
sector. On the one hand, the Union Power Minister and his policymaking team did
a lot of that in making one last revision to the electricity bill before
introducing it in Parliament. They organised yet another meeting of state chief
ministers on the crucial issue of distribution sector reform and delivered up an
expert group report - the Monetek Singh Ahluwalia committee report - on settling
SEB dues to central utilities and reforming SEBs at the same time. They also
drew up an accelerated power sector development programme (APDP) and trekked to
the grassroots to stage road-shows that explain the essentials of power reform
to the masses.
But while policymakers puffed and panted their way along the wayward path of
reform, foreign investors in the power sector walked off in a huff. The
Enron-promoted Dabhol project collapsed even before the parent company filed for
bankruptcy in Houston. AES decided that it had enough to Orissa, Mirant has
declared that it's quitting; China Light and Power, Cogentrix, Daewoo, Powergen
are all in various states of withdrawal. With a little over 500 MW of addition
to generation capacity till mid-year against a target for the whole financial
year of 4764.70 MW, 2001 has done its bit to make achievement in capacity
addition for the 9th Plan period a mere 46 percent of the target.
For the new year, much hope is pinned on the Electricity Bill, which is
currently being scrutinized by a committee of Parliament headed by Santosh Mohan
Deb. The bill envisages freeing up the distribution of power, which remains the
biggest bottleneck in power sector reform
POWER TALK
Installed Capacity 1999-00 Utilities Non-utilities Total
97837 15200 113037
(Courtesy The Economic Times)
