UP to generate additional 3,000 Mw during 11th Plan

Faced with acute power shortage in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government has drawn up an ambitious plan to add 3,000 MW of additional electricity generation capacity during the 11th-Plan period.

According to a Planning Commission report, the state, which did not add a single megawatt during the first four years of the 10th Plan, will step up the power generation capacity from 5,011 MW to 8,011 MW in the 11th Plan, envisaging an increase of almost 60 per cent.

As per the plan, 2,000 MW would be added in the state sector, while the remaining 1,000 MW would come from the private sector.

The state sector projects include Parichha Extention 500 MW, Harduaganj 500 MW, Anpara 'D' 500 MW, Obra Rep 500 MW and private sector project Anpara 'C' 1000 MW capacity.

According to the paper, during the first four years of the 10th Plan, the state failed to increase the power generation capacity, which remained static at 4,658.60 MW.

UP added only 210 MW (Parichha extension) to its electricity generation capacity during 2006-07, the last year of the 10th Plan, against the plan target of 710 MW.

Failure to augment power generation capacity deteriorated the power deficit in the state, which rose from 9.9 per cent in 2001-02 at the end of the Ninth Plan to 21.2 per cent in 2005-06, the penultimate year of the 10th Plan. The deficit position, however, improved to 15.8 per cent with the capacity addition of 210 MW during 2006-07.

Stating that the losses of the UP Power Corp (UPPCL) were likely to go up to Rs 2,659.12 crore during 2007-08, the report said, "the state power utilities need to take corrective steps to reduce the commercial losses as well as improve the collection efficiency to bring the losses to acceptable levels within a fixed time frame."

Blaming demand-supply gap for the losses made by UPPCL, the report said the average cost of supply in the state was 408 paise in 2005-06 against the average tariff of 269 paise, which is nearly 66 per cent of the cost of supply.

Taking into account the collection effeciency of around 89 per cent by UPPCL, the panel projected the transmission and distribution losses would come down to 26 per cent during 2007-08 from 30 per cent in the previous fiscal.