NEW DELHI: Seventy years after independence, India is racing to connect thousands of villages with electricity as it looks to accelerate growth whose dividend are distributed to all.
The new year will see the government accelerate efforts to achieve the mammoth task of reaching power to more than a quarter of a billion people who lack access to electricity.
Year 2017 was an important year, when government unveiled ₹16,320-crore Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) in September to provide electricity connection to around 4 crore families in rural and urban areas by March 2019.
However, the Power Ministry’s internal target to achieve universal electrification under the Saubhagya scheme is December, 2018.
Pre-paid metres
Providing a connection would not help the poor people particularly in rural in view of their lower paying capacity and irregular incomes.
In order to boost electricity consumption particularly in rural areas under the Saubhagya scheme, the government has planned installation of more and more pre-paid metres.
Power Minister RK Singh on several occasions talked about the installation of pre-paid as well as smart metres in the coming days for online generation, service and payment of electricity bills without human interface.
The objective of Saubhagya scheme is to provide last-mile connectivity and electricity connections to all households in rural and urban areas.
Under the scheme, free of cost electricity connections to all remaining un-electrified households with at least one deprivation on the basis of SECC (Socio Economic Caste Economic) data in rural areas and economically poor households in urban areas would be given.
The other families would be charged a sum of ₹500 per household in ten equal instalments with the bill.
Besides that, families located in remote and inaccessible areas would be provided with Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) based standalone systems with LED lights, fan, power plug and so on. The beneficiaries will be identified on the basis of socio-economic conditions using SECC 2011 data.
UDAY scheme
The effective implementation of UDAY scheme meant for revival of debt-laden discoms, would also make a difference in 2018.
“The distribution sector is set to attract the most attention, from household electrification to franchisee bids.
We will see a new set of players entering. Unbundling of wires and supply can spur innovation in business models,” Kameswara Rao, Partner – energy and utilities, PricewaterhouseCoopers said.
He said: “There’s a huge expectation that the government and utilities run a proper pipeline of bids. In its absence, new capital and local supply chain can dry up.”
He is of the view that utilities facing the impact of competition and loss of commercial load are likely to get their act together by investing in technology and younger workforce.
The Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) for financial and operational turnaround of discoms was launched in November, 2015.
The scheme aims to provide permanent solution to legacy of debts of approximately ₹4.3 lakh crore and address potential future losses. The scheme also envisages reform measures in all sectors — generation, transmission, distribution, coal, and energy efficiency. The availability period of the scheme expired on March 31, 2017.
As on November 30, 2017, electrification in 1,24,219 villages and intensive electrification in 4,68,827 villages has been completed. Free electricity connections to 277.20 lakh BPL (below poverty line) households have been released.
As many as 18,452 census villages in the country out of total inhabited villages of 5,97,644 as per census 2011 were reported un-electrified by the States on April 1, 2015.
Source: PTI
