'Demand on Northern Grid not in tandem with energy availability'

New Delhi, May 15 (UNI) The Government today said while the energy requirement and peak demand in the Northern Grid had risen by 5 per cent and 8.3 per cent last month compared to the year-ago period, there was no corresponding increase in energy availability and the peak met was 1.4 per cent only during the corresponding period.

Stating this in a written reply, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told the Rajya Sabha that with the onset of summer and reduced availability of generation, the demands had resulted in overdrawals by the various states in the northern region.

Giving details, he said during April 2006, Uttar Pradesh had overdrawn 163 million Units (MU) from the Grid, followed by Punjab (55 MU), Jammu and Kashmir (39 MU), Uttaranchal and Rajasthan (26 MU each), Haryana (15 MU), Delhi (12 MU), Union Territory of Chandigarh (7 MU) and Himachal Pradesh (less than 1 MU).

The Minister further informed that eight power projects, including a 400 KV sub-station at Delhi were under implementation with the aid of the World Bank and Japan Bank of Industrial Cooperation among others for bringing improvement in power supply in the country.

To another questioner, he said the government had taken an initiative for facilitating several ultra mega power projects of about 4,000 MW capacity each under tariff based competitive bidding route to be located at Sasan in Madhya Pradesh; Mundra in Gujarat; Akaltara in Chhattisgarh; Sindhudurg in Maharashtra and Tadri in Karnataka. A shell company had been set up by the Power Finance Corporation as special purpose vehicles to invite bids for setting up the projects.

Regarding the cost of generation of power in the Ratnagiri Gas and Power Corp Ltd being higher than the average cost of generation, Mr Shinde said the cost of generation was dependent on the price of Liquefied Natural Gas, being sourced by GAIL India Ltd, and the power tariff determined by the appropriate Regulatory Commission.

He added that many proposals for gas based power plants planned for commissioning during the last year of the Tenth Plan and beginning of the 11th Plan have been delayed due to non-tie up of gas availability.

Admitting delay in the implementation of the mega 2,400 MW Tehri Dam Project due to agitation and a PIL filed in the High Court of Uttaranchal, Mr Shinde told the House that the 260.5 metre high Earth and Rockfill Dam had been raised to its full height. Two units of 250 MW each of Tehri HEP Stage-I had been rolled and commissioning of the units was expected shortly.

Due to the construction of the Tehri Dam complex, the total affected villages were 125, of which 37 villages were fully affected and remaining 87 villages were partially affected.

UNI SD VJ ND1518