The problem with this open access model, is that it demands a built in surplus capacity of transmitting electricity. If we only have as much capacity as is currently being used, then all supplies will have to be done through existing transmission lines, prohibiting alternate sources of supply. However, as the SEBs have no money to expand their system, therefore open access is to force them to go to private licensees for transmission as well. And this brings us to the central problem of the new Bill.

In any electrical system, the generation of electricity has to match the consumption, without which voltage and frequency can rise or fall damaging equipment, not only of the consumers but of the electrical system as well. Wherever reforms are being thought of, the electrical system's integrity is being maintained by the Transmission System being kept under one entity who the works with the Regulator and Load Despatch Centres to maintain the system. In this Bill, anybody can become a transmission licensee, thus fragmenting the electrical system. In such a fragmented system there is no way for the transmission to take place as contracted. And in the absence of at least an integrated Transmission System - State Gridcos or Regional Gridcos - the electrical system will be open to anarchy. The Bill then has a situation in which either there will be no open access as there is limited transmission capacity or will see a fragmental transmission system that cannot maintain system stability.

The other problem of the Bill is that it provides a definition of captive generator that allows anybody to set up a plant anywhere, supply to anybody in the system and be treated preferentially from generators. Given that the SEBs and the distribution companies are losing their best paying customers, this step makes them completely unviable. Giving incentives to captive generators to sell to the grid is one issue, allowing them "open access" to sell anywhere will only accentuate the current crisis of the system.

NEGLECT OF THE RURAL SECTOR

The last part is that the rural sector does not figure in the Bill anywhere except as a responsibility of the rural people themselves. I can understand that co-operatives, Panchayats, etc, take responsibility of distribution in rural areas through rural utilities. The question is who will take electricity upto the substation and the HT transformer? At what price will they get electricity? And if they are not electrified, who invests in the generating facilities?

It is clear that no private utility/licensee will do rural electrification. They did not do so earlier in the US, nor have they done so in Orissa now. The electrical lines and equipment that were damaged in the Orissa Cyclone have yet not been repaired in rural areas. In the US only after Roosevelt and the New Deal came into being in 1935, was rural electrification taken up in the US, something the private utilities had not done. The Bill 2003 has no place for the rural sector reserving electricity now only for the rich. The Bill 2003 differs from the 1948 Act that it sees electricity sector as another one for making profits. Unfortunately for those who expect to benefit from the Bill, it does not even have a coherent understanding of the sector. Unlike Ambedkar who matched his vision with meticulous craftsmanship, the Bill’s shallow vision is matched only by its shoddy drafting. This Bill only will accelerate the downward trajectory of the power sector, which is already in a crisis.

The electrical lines and equipment that were damaged in the Orissa Cyclone have yet not been repaired in rural areas. In the US only after Roosevelt and the New Deal came into being in 1935, was rural electrification taken up in the US, something the private utilities had not done. The Bill 2003 has no place for the rural sector reserving electricity now only for the rich. Unfortunately for those who expect to benefit from the Bill, it does not even have a coherent understanding of the sector. Unlike Ambedkar who matched his vision with meticulous craftsmanship, the Bill’s shallow vision is matched only by its shoddy drafting. This Bill only will accelerate the downward trajectory of the power sector, which is already in a crisis.