4 years of Modi govt: Power ministry's unwavering endeavour illuminated rural India
From electrification of villages to making India a power surplus country, the power ministry has been unwavering in its endeavour to light up the nation. As Modi government completes its four years, it would not be wrong to say that power ministry, which was under Piyush Goyal till recently, has been one of the top performing ministries.
Not only did Goyal manage to create a synergy between the different power related ministries- Power, Coal and New Renewables - and make them work in tandem with each other, under his leadership India, for the first time in the history, became a power surplus country. This is no mean achievement as there were several issues with power generation when the current government took over. Today India's coal-based power capacity has increased drastically.
Let us take a look at the other key achievements of the power ministry:
Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LED for All or UJALA initiative: The aim of this initiative was to provide LED bulbs to domestic consumers with a target to replace 77 crore incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs by March 2019. LED Tubelights and ceiling fans were also introduced under the Scheme. As of May 2018, over 29.74 crore LED bulbs have been provided which has resulted in energy saving upto 38,626 mn kWh. The cost savings because of this translates to Rs 15,450 Cr and Carbon Di-oxide emissions have reduced by 3,12,87,063 tonnes.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY): One of pet iniatives of PM Modi was electrification of villages. PM Modi has now delivered on a key electoral promise that helped him storm into power - electricity to all. According to power ministry report, out of 597,464 census villages, 597,464 villages (100%) have been electrified. The aim of this program was to provide 100% rural electrification with reliable, adequate and quality electricity supply and also to provide access to electricity to villages/habitations and households. The other sub-objectives were strengthening and augmentation of sub transmission and distribution infrastructure, separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders.
Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY): The key objective is to obtain financial and operational turnaround of State owned Power Distribution Companies (DISCOMs). The scheme aims to bring AT&C losses to 15% and ACS-ARR Gap to Zero by FY 2018-19. According to a power ministry report, this has been the most comprehensive power sector reform ever.
Operational Indicators (As on 10 April 18):
- Feeder metering: 100% achieved in Urban areas and Rural areas
- Rural Feeder audit: 100% conducted
- Feeder Segregation: 62% achieved
- Bonds issued: Rs. 2,32,163 crore (86.29%; data from 16 States)
- Tariff Revision done for 25 out of 27 States/Uts
Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana: The objective of this program was to provide free electricity connections to 4 crore poor and middle income families. Total outlay of the project was Rs. 16, 320 crores, with Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Rs. 12,320 crores. The outlay for the rural households was Rs. 14,025 crores, with GBS of Rs. 10,587.50 crores, while the outlay for the urban households was Rs. 2,295 crores, with GBS of Rs. 1,732.50 crores.
In terms of Household progress between 11 Oct, 2017 to 02 May, 2018, out of 3,63,11,456 villages, 50,69,235 have been electrified, while 3,12,42,221 villages remain.
Street
Light
National
Programme
(SLNP):
The
prime
objective
of
this
program
is
Replacement
of
3.5
crore
conventional
street
lights,
which
will
result
in
saving
of
9,000
million
units
and
reduction
in
Carbon
Footprint
of
6.2
Million
Tonnes
CO2
per
year
annually.
Total
cost
savings
of
municipalities
every
year
will
be
Rs
5,500
crore.
In
terms
of
achievements,
more
than
57
lakh
LED
street
lights
have
been
installed
which
resulted
in
recustion
of
1.28
Metric
Tonnes
of
CO2
and
other
Green
House
Gases.
According
to
power
ministry
report,
average
energy
savings
per
light
per
year
is
270.49
kWh.
Mobile
Applications
and
Websites
Launched
to
Ensure
Accountability
and
Transparency
Grameen
Vidyutikaran
(GARV):
Is
an
app
to
help
citizens
track
rural
electrification
under
Deen
Dayal
Upadhyaya
Gram
Jyoti
Yojana
(DDUGJY).
'Saubhagya' Web-Portal:
Is
a
Platform
for
transparently
monitoring
Universal
Household
Electrification
which
was
launched
on
16th
Nov,
2017.
GARV-II: An App, launched on 20th December 2016, hosts the data in respect of about 6 lakh villages, with more than 15 lakh habitations having 17 crore people, that has been mapped for tracking progress on household electrification in each of the habitations of these villages.
UDAY: Is portal gives current status of implementation of the Ujjwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana(UDAY) scheme in the country i.e. State wise Financial and Operational performance parameters including bonds issued, reduction in AT&C losses, tariff revision, smart metering, feeder segregation and other energy efficiency initiatives.
VIDYUT
PRAVAH:
Is
an
app
created
to
provide
real
time
information
of
electricity
price
and
availability.
Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA): Is an app to keep track of LED distribution under the Domestic Efficient Lighting Program (DELP)
URJA (Urban Jyoti Abhiyaan) MobileApp: Is the Consumer Dashboard of the URJA App, launched on 16.06.16, provides for Urban Power Distribution Sector to enhance Consumer Connect, Project Monitoring of Urban Distribution Sector projects and providing information on the monthly performance on parameters like Consumer complaints redressal, Release of New service connection, Average number of interruptions faced by consumer, Number of consumers making e-payments, Energy lost/power theft i.e. AT&C loss.
URJA MITRA: Is an app through which power consumers across the nation would have prior intimation of expected duration and cause of scheduled power outages and post fault intimation of unscheduled power outages duration in real time.
E-Tarang: Is an app meant for monitoring the real time status of Transmission System. E-Trans app is a platform for better price discovery in respect of Inter State Transmission projects to be awarded through tariff based competitive bidding (TBCB) process.
'DEEP (Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price) e-Bidding': Is the portal that will provide a common e-bidding platform with e-reverse auction facility to facilitate nation-wide power procurement through a wider network so as to bring uniformity and transparency in the process of power procurement.