The Union Power Minister R K. Singh on Tuesday said that no bills are pending for power generation companies and all the legacy dues have been almost cleared. “In our country, there are no bills pending for gencos (power generation companies). All the legacy dues have also been almost cleared off”, he said.
The minister also said that Aggregate Technical & Commercial losses of the distribution companies have come down to 15% last year from 27% in 2014. The losses will further come down to 12%, Singh said.
He noted that under the present policy, every distribution licensee has a responsibility to tie up with different installed capacities to have power adequacy so that they can meet the demand of the areas under them.
“No distribution licensee can shed their responsibility because of the high price at electricity exchange and will be penalized for failing to provide power because of shortage of supply in licensed areas.”
The country is installing more capacities so that more power producers and suppliers can come forward and ensure 24×7 availability of electricity to the consumers. Availability of power in rural areas has increased from 12 hours in 2015 to 20.6 hours and in urban areas it has increased to 23.8 hours, as per the government.
While speaking at an event in Mumbai, the minister also said that there has been a 65% increase in the transmission network in the last nine years and there is a huge market for manufacturers in the electricity sector.
Talking about hydel power, Singh said that 1.8 GW of hydel power is under construction. He also urged the stakeholders to work for hydel power storage and immersible pumps as there is a capacity of 4.0 GW pumped storage projects (PSPs) at various stages of clearance. He emphasized that hydel power components should be manufactured in India and not imported.
Highlighting the progress made in the renewable energy sector, Singh said that the entire value chain of RE ranging from poly-silicon to photovoltaic modules will be manufactured in India within the next two years.
Singh informed that the peak demand has gone up from 136 MW in 2014 to 243 MW in 2023, registering a growth of 80%, while installed power generation capacity has gone up by almost 70%, from 249 GW to 426 GW in the same timeline.
