Power Sector Meet To Focus On Seb Funds, Tariff Issue

Experts will gather in Calcutta this weekend for a round table discussion on 'Challenges and Threats for Indian Power Sector "" Role of SEBs'. The 2-day discussion on September 28-29 will be held at the West Bengal State Electricity Board headquarters. It will have four sessions dealing with different themes, besides the inaugural and valedictory sessions. The National Working Group on Power Sector and the Forum of Scientists, Engineers & Technologists (Foset) are the organisers of the event.

Although the organisers have requested Union power minister S Venugopalachari to address the meet, his confirmation is still awaited.

The list of those who have confirmed their participation reads like a who's who of the domestic power sector. It includes Planning Commission member S P Shukla, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) chairman M I Beg, CEA member (planning)G V Rao, eminent power engineer N Tata Rao, chairmen of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Meghalaya state electricity boards, former Punjab SEB chairman N S Vasant, former CEA chairman M K Sambamurthi and JNU professor R P Sengupta.

 

The first session will deal with the financial status of SEBs and options for improvement. The second session will discuss policy direction for improvement in capacity utilisation, system development and demand management. The third session has selected the theme of norm fixation for private participation. The fourth and the last session will take up the issue of subsidy and tariff structure and the role of the regulatory authority.

Foset has observed that the quality of power supply has deteriorated with incremental cost of electricity. A non-competitive, monolithic, monopolistic business culture has developed in the Indian power sector. It is impossible to fix accountability. There is also lack of transparency and absence of a rational tariff regulatory authority. The new investor-friendly power policy announced in 1991 has been able to attract only a smallquantum of foreign investment and private power generating capacity.

Although the organisers are not circulating any background paper or presenting any proposals for discussions, Foset has circulated an open letter to the members of Parliament expressing concern on various issues like lack of transparency in choosing the investor as equipment supplier, inflated project cost and counter guarantees.

Foset says the issues that merit immediate debate include balanced regional development, protecting poor consumers including rural consumers, better capacity utilisation, inter-regional power flow, indigenous fuel use and conservation and demand side management of electricity.include virtual="/incs/right.asp"-->