Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Some Rapid Fire Questions on Power Sector

Q) Where is "Electricity " listed in Indian constitution?
Ans) In the concurrent list. ( Entry #38, list III of schedule VII).

Q) Who headed the committee on Power Policy?
Ans) N K Singh.

Q)Which two state boast of non-loss making SEBs?
Ans) Himachal and Maharashtra.

Q)Where do you find world's highest ever night peak load?
Ans) Haryana !

Q)How much is per capit per day electricty consumption in India?
Ans) India is 1 unit/day, China - 5 units/day, USA - 40 Units per day !

Q) How many households are deprived of electricity in INdia?
Ans) 69 %.

Q) Formed in 1989, this organisation had turnover of Rs 1000 Crore in 1996, with aprofit of Rs300 Crore. ( operating 30,000 ckt Km of EHV lines, 30,000 MVa of transformers and handled 30% of total power available in the country.) Whats the name?


Ans) POWERGRID.

Two decades of reforms in Power Sector



  • Despite two years of reforms, scenario in power sector is not veri optimistic. SEBs ( now corporations) owe over Rs 10,000 crore to Caoal India and their total annual losses are huge ( More than Rs 40,000 Crore ).


  • Escalations in Hydel projects ( thanks to anti-dam activists ) have caused poor hydel:thermal ratio ( which is 60:40 world over as compared to 25:75 in India)


  • DISCOMs have not been able to reduce losses despite reforms and power remains most demanded Infrastructure in the Country.

  • Out of total generated power only 40 % is billed,

Monday, November 28, 2011

How much coal is burnt to make electricty in India?



Well, the answer is ...HUGE . About 600 million Tonnes of Coal is gulped by TPPs in India. About 100 million Tonne of this is imported.


Interestingly, coal comes under APM ( Administrative Pricing Mechanism)


Coal availability has been discussed a lot recently in view of capacity addition plans failing year after year.