Powerful Solutions - 2

text of letter sent to press (on 22nd July, '06):

The state of Orissa is estimated to have 61 billion tonnes of coal reserves, which supposedly can sustain power generation capacity of upto 100,000 MW for close to a century. Taking advantage of that, the Reliance Anil Ambani group has announced the setting up of a massive 12,000 MW power station there. Now, if our KPTCL can tie up with them, as well as with Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) for transmission of power to Bangalore, no other arrangement can rival that on cost, efficiency or even environment friendliness. However, for the tie-up to operate smoothly, payments have to be timely. The simplest way to ensure this would be to hand-over the distribution in Bangalore also to Reliance. Even better would be to have a similar tie-up with TATA's so that the Bangalore load is split between the two, like in Delhi, and you have a ready comparison of the services of the two agencies, which is the best way to keep a tab on them in a natural monopoly scenario, apart from that exercised by the KERC. Bangalore can then enjoy quality power supply, and slowly dismantle the genset, inverter, converter, emergency lamp, candle, match-stick industry, effecting a direct savings of over a Rs 1,000 crore per annum in the process.

Further, with such an arrangement worked out, the TADADI and Nandikoor projects, based on coal shipped in from across the seas, can be given a quiet burial, protecting our eco-sensitive coastal areas simultaneously.

Powerful Solutions

text of letter sent to press (10th Oct, '06):

Finally, it required a businessman - politician, Mr Rajiv Chandrasekhar, to come up the most sensible of solutions to the endless power problems faced by the state. His offer is to set up a 1000 MW generating station near Ennore port in Tamilnadu (close to Chennai), on a power sharing basis, and based on imported coal, and transmit Karnataka's share to Bangalore, vide the report in your columns on the 9th instant. This arrangement totally avoids carting of coal all the way here and burning it in our back-yard, and the myriad problems attendant to it, opting for the highly efficient and clean power transmission process instead. What apparently has not been appreciated by the powers that be in the state so far is that it is lot more economical as well as sensible to generate power at a point which calls for least transportation of coal.

The Reliance Anil Ambani group is also reportedly setting up of a massive 12,000 MW pit-head thermal power station in Orissa. Now, if our KPTCL can tie up with them, as well as with Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) for transmission of power to Bangalore, no other arrangement can rival that on cost, efficiency or even environment friendliness.

However, for all these tie-ups to go through, the payment arrangements, which are currently notorious, have to be smoothened out. The simplest way to ensure this would be to hand-over the distribution in cities Bangalore also to Reliance or to Mr Chandrasekhar's company. Even better would be to split the Bangalore load between the two, like in Delhi, and you have a ready comparison of the services of the two agencies, which is the best way to keep a tab on them in a natural monopoly scenario, apart from that exercised by the KERC. Bangalore can then enjoy quality power supply, and slowly dismantle the genset, inverter, converter, emergency lamp, candle, match-stick industry, effecting a direct savings of over a Rs 1,000 crore per annum in the process.

Further, with such arrangements worked out, the TADADI and Nandikoor projects, proposed to be located in our eco-sensitive coastal areas, can be given a quiet burial.

power tariff reduction - the golden egg!

text of letter sent to press:

While the consumer groups would like to believe that they have scored a major victory by getting the KERC to mandate reductions in the power tariffs, all that they may have achieved is the slow death of the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.

The problem afflicting the Karnataka power sector currently is one resulting from the 'cross-subsidy model' imposed on the ESCOMS by the government, in pursuit of its populistic politics in the garb of Socialism. This provides a convenient, though largely valid, alibi to the ESCOMS for their inability to reduce losses, in turn aggravating their already bankrupt status. In such a scenario, if they are made to shoulder the additional financial burden, there's not far to go for the 'goose'. Load sheddings, etc are going to become the order of the day, with the genset, inverter, converter, battery, UPS, candle industry sector waiting in the wings to take over and make a killing.

The only way out of this vicious cycle is for the distribution in the cities to be privatised, more or less on the New Delhi model, and in the rural areas, on the many successful models existing, including Karnataka's own 'Hukkeri Co-op Society' model. In fact, this was the very objective with which the unbundling of the sector was conceived in the first place, but which has since been side-tracked by various lobbies in pursuit of their narrow vested interests.

The growth prospects in the power sector are just huge (far higher than IT, or several of them put together). And, being an infrastructure sector, its growth can fuel the growth of the rest as well as the economy as a whole. If only the government would get out of the way, and play the roles that is required of it, as the facilitator and the regulator.