MSEB chairman Asoke Basak said that with the demand-supply management (DSM) options, savings of 20 to 25 per cent in energy consumption can be achieved in various sectors. However, he reiterated that DSM needs consumer involvement and can be implemented at a lower cost, shorter gestation period and without any environmental penalty.

At the all-India level, Basak said that the total installed capacity was 84,904 mw at the end of the Eighth Plan. While formulating the plan, the centre initially had targeted at an additional generation of 48,000 mw which was later pared to 30,538 mw due to a resource crunch. There has also been an additional 16,423 mwduring the Eighth Plan (leaving behind a shortfall of 14,115 mw - 46 per cent of the target). This has widened the gap in demand and supply.

Keeping this in view, the Ninth Plan identifies a capacity addition programme of 57,000 mw. However, feasible capacity addition seems to be only 40,000 mw considering the readiness of projects.

Basak said that MSEB, with an installed capacity of over 12,000 mw, has introduced the Time Of Day (TOD) tariff which provides for substantial reduction in energy charges for high tension consumers who use energy only from 10pm to 6am. "The board has, thus, sent a proper incentive to the industries to enable them to transfer their excessive peak load to the night shift," he added.

On DSM for agricultural consumers, Basak said that in view of the low flat rate tariff, there was no financial incentive for these consumers to consider DSM options. "If by any means it is possible to shift the loads of agricultural consumers to night, it would be greatly beneficial to the board,but this would lead to discomfort among agricultural consumers," he said.

Basak said that a scheme whereby all rural feeders (predominantly feeding agricultural consumers) in the area were switched off during the day time once a week was in operation. The daily agricultural load was thus reduced by about 250-300 mw which worked out to be 3 per cent relief compared with peak loading.

Basak said the switching off of agricultural pump load for one day during day time does not adversely affect agricultural process. Moreover, the installation of low-tension shunt capacitor banks at the secondary of distribution transformers feeding predominantly agricultural load and high-tension shunt capacitors at 11/22/33/100/132 kv reduces reactive loading on various feeders and also improves the overall voltage profile of the grid.

"This leads to transmission and distribution loss reduction due to high reactive loading on these lines. This is a cost-effective DSM project with a payback period of almost three to fouryears," he said.

Basak stressed the need for energy audit in industries and said that this is aimed at collecting information on the energy consumption and analysing reasons for efficiency deviations in their own interest. "There is a dire need to modernise equipment such as boilers, furnaces and adopt waste heat recovery schemes and install instrumentation and control systems to improve efficiency," he added.