Indiscriminate consumption of power

Dr Ashwani Mahajan
At the night of 29 July 2012 (2.30AM), nearly 300 million people went into darkness due to the failure of northern grid. Factories, Rail and even Metro became standstill. Life was totally shaken during this worst ever grid failure. It was little less hot due to monsoon, though people’s woes were no less. Electricity was somehow restored by borrowing power from a small neighboring country Bhutan. Problem was repeated once again after a day, when on 31st July three grids failed, impacting 600 million people from 22 states. Blame game is on, as center is blaming states for this crisis and states are rebutting any indiscipline. Immediate cause of grid failure in cited as overdrawing of power by states from the grid. Whosoever is at fault, the fact of the matter is that life becomes hell without sufficient and continuous power supply. Grid failure not only causes pains and heavy loss; it also pulls dawn the prestige of the country in international arena. It is being said that there in a major imbalance between demand and supply of power, such incidents may repeat in future too. This is also being said that there is insufficient investment in power generation.
Demand & Supply of Electricity
If we take a cursory look at the target of capacity creation in the last 20 years or four five year plans, we find that capacity building in power generation has always remained less than the target. If we take a total of targets in the last four plans, it was 2 lakh 12 thousand megawatts, whereas actual capacity creation was little more than one lakh megawatts. In the Eleventh Five Year Plan, total capacity creation has been merely 50 thousand megawatts, against the target of one lakh megawatts.
During 2011-12, the gap between demand and supply of power was 9.3 percent, whereas this gap was 12.9 percent on peak load. Demand for electricity has been increasing at the rate of 9 to 10 percent, while its supply could increase at the rate of 7.7 percent only. This implies widening of gap between demand and supply of electricity in the country. Under these circumstances, efforts are on to somehow increase the supply of electricity using multiple sources including hydro, thermal and even nuclear power.
Electricity Production and Environment
Environmental issues are emerging from indiscriminate use and production of electricity in the country. If we try to produce electricity from water, it affects natural flow of water or endangers lives of people due to big dams. In the past nation has witnessed big public movements against big dams and so called run of the river projects. Recently government has put some restrictions on hydro power projects. If we produce power from coal or gas, it causes emissions of harmful and poisonous gases. Recent earthquakes of Japan has belied all claims about safety of nuclear power plants and thus nuclear power generation is also not free from hazards and future of human race itself is endangered. Nation is well aware of protests and people’s movements against nuclear power projects in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Protests against power projects endangering environment have solid reasons. Can we forgo purity of Ganges, or can we afford to endanger humanity by way of radioactivity of nuclear power plants for a few units of electricity, are some of the basic questions faced by the country.
Who is Using Electricity and How Much?
It is not important that how much electricity is in demand. Important to understand is the fact that who is using electricity and for what purpose? 35 percent of electricity demand comes from industry, 21 percent from agriculture, 28 percent from the household and 9 percent from commercial establishments. Hardly 2 percent electricity is used for railway traction. Apart from drawing electricity from the public utilities, commercial establishments and industry use power generated from their own captive power plants.
Perhaps the aggregate figures of power usage do not tell the whole story. We understand that it is important to provide electricity for productive purposes and for lighting the houses of poor. In this context it is important to note that, the usage of electricity is rising at the rate of only 2.7 percent for productive purposes including agriculture, industry and services, whereas the electricity demanded for luxuries (like air conditioning) is rising at a much faster rate, such that the overall usage for electricity is rising at the rate of 8 percent per annually. According to the statements from the official quarters, the major reason for grid failure was overdrawing of power by some states from the grid. For instance Haryana was overdrawing 18 percent, U.P. 31 percent and Rajasthan 18 percent as compared to their quota. At the night of 29 July, Haryana was drawing 25.5 percent extra electricityfrom the grid and as a result, the grid failed. This is not the first instance of over drawing of electricity from the grid by the powerful states. Never the less the pertinent question faced by the nation is that, is this indiscriminate consumption of electricity is not the cause of electricity crisis?
Exploitation of Nature in the Name of Lighting the Poor
As on date 7,000 crore units of electricity are produced on monthly basis, which makes per capita use of electricity at 58 units monthly. Even now nearly 20 crore people (4 crore households) are deprived of electricity. If a small bulb could light their homes and a fan is available to them, they may consider themselves to be lucky enough. At the rate of 30 units monthly total requirement for each household (deprived of electricity) comes to 120 crore units monthly. If we could spare nearly 2 percent of electricity from the present generation, nobody would be left deprived of electricity. If we look at the target of 1 lakh megawatt of additional power generation capacity, it is not for poor and deprived. It is actually for those who have the capacity to purchase electricity. And it is surprising that government is ready to go to any extent, even endangering the humanity for generation of additional power for luxury of few, in the guise of lighting the common man.
This is correct that the image of the nation has got a big blow due to the happenings in the last few days due to grid failures. But we must think in depth that are we not encouraging consumption of electricity by the rich. In fact the luxuries of the few are on rise at the cost of environment. Those who are advocating additional investment in power generation to meet the arithmetic gap between demand and supply of electricity must understand that there is a limit to the generation of electricity through conventional means. If the rich wants to use more electricity for their luxuries they should be ready to pay more price by generating power by renewable sources like solar power. Government should also keep in mind that it is not prudent to produce more power using conventional and pollutive methods. It should encourage generation of electricity from renewable sources like solar and plan financial support and subsidies to encourage the same.

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