Average power supply per day was 22.17 hours in rural areas in May and 23.36 hours in cities in April, Parliament was informed on Tuesday. “All the States and the Union Territories (UTs) have signed MoUs with the Central Government to ensure 24×7 power supply from 1st April 2019 onwards.
“As per National Power Portal (NPP), the average hour of supply is 22.17 Hrs in the rural areas and 23.36 Hrs in urban areas,” Power Minister R K Singh said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Singh explained that electricity is a Concurrent List subject and supply or distribution of electricity to consumers is done by the respective state governments and distribution licensees in their respective areas.
Government of India has helped the states through its various schemes including Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) and Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) to help them to achieve the objective of providing uninterrupted power supply to all the households, he added.
The Centre recently approved the “Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme – A Reforms based and Results linked Scheme” with the objective of improving the quality and reliability of power supply to consumers through a financially sustainable and operationally efficient distribution sector.
The scheme aims to reduce the AT&C (aggregate technical and commercial) losses at pan-India level to 12-15 per cent and ACS-ARR gap (actual cost of service and average revenue realised) to zero by 2024-25. This would also contribute towards ensuring 24×7 electric supply to the urban and rural areas in the country, the minister stated.
In another reply to the House, the minister said the share of thermal power generation in total electricity output has reduced over a period of time and came down to 75.20 per cent in 2020-21 from 80.43 in 2016-17. The minister also told the House about extension of deadline for installation of FGD (Flue-gas desulfurization) facility in thermal power plants.
For extension of this deadline, coal-based power plants are categorised into three categories — A, B and C.
Category-A plants are those which are within 10 km radius of NCR (National Capital Region) or cities having million-plus population as per 2011 census.
Category-B plants are those which are within 10 km radius of critically polluted areas or non-attainment cities as defined by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Category-C are those which are other than those included in Category A and B.
The minister said Category A power plants have to comply with installation of FGD by December 31, 2022.
The majority of the plants fall under Category B and C, for which timelines are up to December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2024, respectively, he added.
Constraints faced by thermal power plants in implementation of sulphur emission norms using FGD technology include minimum time period required for FGD commissioning from the date of award at 36 to 42 months, limited availability of vendors, price escalation due to limited supply of components and impact of COVID-19 pandemic on supply chain and manpower availability, he added.
