government's game of hide & seek
Text of letter sent to Editor, Times of India, Bangalore, on 23/04/06
The report in your columns, under the caption 'power plays hide and seek' on the 22nd instant, where it states that the KPTCL is not in a position to match the terms offered by other states (like Maharashtra) for buying power from privately-owned Jindal plant in Karnataka, even as the state suffers serious energy shortage, brings to bear the actual problem faced by the state power sector.
It is that, with the various government agencies involved losing something like Rs 3,000 crores a year between the lot of them, they are in no position to buy power from any source on commercial terms. And, there is no solution to the problem as long as the ESCOMS follow the present cross-subsidy model.
The original purpose of unbundling of the various functions was to eventually hand over the distribution to the private sector, and retain only transmission with the state-owned KPTCL. The babu's however have managed to scuttle this by clubbing the rural loads with the city loads, thus making the whole thing totally unattractive for the private sector operators. It is not that the private sector operators will shy away from taking on the rural supplies. But, that has to be a different model altogether, and if the government facilitates the process, there will be any number of players ready to take it on. In our very own Karnataka, there is the excellent example of the Hukeri Co-op Society doing exactly that, and given the right environment, more players will come on in no time with the most efficient and cost-effective means to meet the needs.
All in all, what is required, and urgently too, is for the government to get out of power distribution, taking along with it all the attendant artificialities that are constraining the sector.
The report in your columns, under the caption 'power plays hide and seek' on the 22nd instant, where it states that the KPTCL is not in a position to match the terms offered by other states (like Maharashtra) for buying power from privately-owned Jindal plant in Karnataka, even as the state suffers serious energy shortage, brings to bear the actual problem faced by the state power sector.
It is that, with the various government agencies involved losing something like Rs 3,000 crores a year between the lot of them, they are in no position to buy power from any source on commercial terms. And, there is no solution to the problem as long as the ESCOMS follow the present cross-subsidy model.
The original purpose of unbundling of the various functions was to eventually hand over the distribution to the private sector, and retain only transmission with the state-owned KPTCL. The babu's however have managed to scuttle this by clubbing the rural loads with the city loads, thus making the whole thing totally unattractive for the private sector operators. It is not that the private sector operators will shy away from taking on the rural supplies. But, that has to be a different model altogether, and if the government facilitates the process, there will be any number of players ready to take it on. In our very own Karnataka, there is the excellent example of the Hukeri Co-op Society doing exactly that, and given the right environment, more players will come on in no time with the most efficient and cost-effective means to meet the needs.
All in all, what is required, and urgently too, is for the government to get out of power distribution, taking along with it all the attendant artificialities that are constraining the sector.
posted by Muralidhar Rao at
2:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home