Paucity Of Funds Hits Power Capacity Addition In 8th Plan

Paucity of funds during the eighth plan has led to slippage in the power capacity addition programme, a report of the working group on power constituted by the Planning Commission has said.

Tardy implementation of renovation, modernisation and upgradation work on hydel power stations mainly due to reduction in the share of power sector outlays and in overall plan investment led to a capacity addition of 17,667 mw which was about 3,384 mw less than that in the seventh plan period, the report has said.

Pointing out that it is essential to maximise utilisation of the existing power plants, the report has said that renovation and modernisation of 80 generating units, which were not covered in the ninth plan phase-II, for life extension must be carried out soon.

A total fund requirements of Rs 10,045 crore has been envisaged for completion of the works on renovation and modernisation programmes during the ninth plan, the report said.

The modernisation programmes which could not be implemented during the eigth plan period would now have to be implemented in the ninth plan to increase the generation capacity of the existing power plants, the report has said.

The report also points out that during the eighth plan period there was no appreciable change in the number of employees in the state governments owned utilities and electricity departments.

The manpower strength continued to be around 9.8-9.9 lakh, due to increasing automation, as well as a conscientious policy of avoidance of excess manpower, the report has said.

The manpower strength in the electricity supply industry at the end of eighth five year plan stood at 11 lakh which included 8.62 lakh of technical staff and 2.38 lakh of non-technical staff.

According to the report, during the ninth plan, additional manpower would be required to meet the requirements of capacity addition envisaged for generation, transmission and distribution. It estimated that by the end of ninth plan about 15 lakh more employees would be needed for the industry, with an installed capacity of 143,891 mw. The ratio of man per mw would be 10.53, in contrast to 12.79 at the end of eighth five year plan.

To sustain the quality manpower performance modern techniques and tools like stimulators will have to be used and for this existing institutional arrangements have to be further strengthened, the report has said.