India envisages about 950,000 MW power requirement by 2030

Jul 26, 2006, 11:07 GMT

New Delhi, July 26 (IANS) India has scaled up its estimate of power requirement to between 800,000 MW and 950,00 MW by 2030 to achieve the targeted growth of over eight percent annually, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here Wednesday.

Highlighting the findings of the Energy Coordination Committee headed by him, the prime minister informed industry leaders at an energy conclave: 'The Integrated Energy Policy document has estimated energy requirements in the year 2030 to be higher than today's levels by a factor of anywhere between four and five if our economy grows at around eight percent per annum.'

'The figures of future requirements are truly gigantic. Electricity generation capacity would need to go up from our current installed capacity of 131,000 MW to between 800,000 and 950,000 MW,' Manmohan Singh said.

This would imply substantial increase in annual oil imports which could be around 300 to 400 million tonnes and coal imports that could touch 800 million tonnes annually, he pointed out.

India currently imports over 70 percent of its crude oil requirement, which is around 114 million tonnes. In the case of coal, though India has large reserves the quality is not so good due to the high ash content.

Calling for a new paradigm of development for the energy sector, the prime minister urged more focus on both the demand side and the supply side and judicious use of domestic resources.

'It would also have to focus on greater efficiency at all levels and the contribution that modern technology can make to promoting more efficient use of the available sources of energy.'

Expressing serious concern over the unsustainable 40-50 percent power losses in transmission and distribution losses in several parts of the country, the prime minister stressed the need for new management strategies to cope with this harsh reality.

To help India meet its gigantic future energy requirements, Manmohan Singh said there is need to develop public private partnerships in ways and means to meet the estimated Rs.60,000 billion ($1.2 trillion) investment required over next 25 years to provide electricity to consumers at affordable cost.

The impact of the widening shortfall in power generation, he pointed out was being felt more in rural areas which have not received adequate attention.

'The health and the lives of our people are critically affected by this deficiency in our past planning for energy. If we have to free our people from drudgery and ill-health, we need to address the issue of access to energy, particularly the need for rural masses,' he said.

The Integrated Energy Policy report by Kirit S. Parikh, energy advisor to the Planning Commission, strives to address the various energy security, access and availability, affordability and pricing, efficiency and environment issues concerning power generation.

Pointing out that India is short of modern energy resources like oil, gas and uranium and even coal is not as abundant as is generally believed, the prime minister urged more focus on investment in exploration, production of fuels, and power and gas infrastructure.

To meet the target of providing electricity in all villages by 2009, the prime minister said more focus would be given on decentralised distributed generation options based on locally available renewable energy resources particularly in far-flung areas.

This plan would see around 25,000 remote villages being provided electricity based on their own local generators using available renewable resources.

© 2006 Indo-Asian News Service