Goyal reiterates commitment to 24/7 power

Says his priority is to set right a crisis-ridden sector

Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal reiterated on Sunday that his priority was to set right a “crisis-ridden” sector.

“Power outages are more of a norm than an exception,” he told a press conference. “(There’s) arbitrary coal block allocation and sub-optimal renewable energy generation.”

Though some tried to get him to say something on opening coal mining to the private sector, something he’s indicated in the past as a needed step (as has the annual Economic Survey), Goyal declined to oblige. “We are not for opening the private sector right away. Our first priority is the regulated sector,” he said.

The Supreme Court order on what to do with the coal blocks allotted to power companies between 1993 and 2013, which it has already termed illegal, is likely on Tuesday. “Whatever the decision of the court, we will ensure speedy execution,” said Goyal. “(And) meet our targets of increasing coal production and also that every power plant in the country gets coal.”

The minister was addressing journalists at nine centres through the country, via video conferencing, on the achievements of the ministries in his charge (energy, coal and renewable energy) in the first 100 days.

In 2013-14, the country imported 169 million tonnes of coal for Rs 95,175 crore, against 146 mt at Rs 92,538 crore during 2012-13. The minister said the government had earmarked a target of 1,000 mt of coal production by 2019. In past years, he noted, coal production had risen only marginally. On the other hand, power demand had soared — its production has risen 22 per cent in the past three months, for one.

Playing down on coal shortages at some power stations, Goyal said the government in 100 days had slogged the system to produce nearly 22 per cent more electricity. Blaming the policies of previous government for domestic production not meeting power plant requirement, Goyal said his ministry is aiming to rationalise supplies by supplying fuel nearest to the plant as well as implement long term measures to raise output.

Goyal spoke of state-specific issues such as mining constraints, transmission bottlenecks and power theft. He emphasised the goal was to ensure 24/7 power supply to all and that his three departments would develop a plan together.

“We have already discussed the plan with 17 states for strengthening the transmission network and we are hopeful that many more would come on board soon. In renewable energy, we are looking at more aggressive targets, with better reach across the nook and corners of the country. So much so that we are hopeful of achieving 20 Gw (20,000 Mw) of solar power faster than the target of 2022,” he said.