India unveils $2.5 billion plan to electrify all households by end 2018

[RISING SUN]

India unveils $2.5 billion plan to electrify all households by end 2018
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched a $2.5 billion project to electrify all of the country's households by the end of 2018.

More than 40 million households - about a quarter of all in the country - are yet to be electrified and about 300 million of India's 1.3 billion people are still not hooked up to the grid.

The states will need to complete the electrification by December 2018 and the government will identify those eligible for free electricity connections across the country.

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"No fee will be charged for electricity connection in households of poor citizens," Modi said at an event where he launched the project.

The project, which will be mostly funded by the federal government and run by the state-run Rural Electrification Corp Ltd, also aims to cut use of kerosene, the government said.

The pledge to provide power could face challenges as it remains difficult to provide electricity in remote towns and villages. The government said it would distribute solar power packs with a battery bank to un-electrified households in such areas.

Another challenge will be to fix finances of debt-laden power distribution companies in states that struggle to buy and supply electricity to consumers.

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Ashok Khurana, director general of industry body Association of Power Producers, said the government must take steps to improve the financial health of such companies if the new programme is to be a success.
http://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idINKCN1C10JC

 

[RISING SUN]

India's $2.5bn scheme to electrify every household
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a 16bn rupee scheme ($2.5bn; £1.8bn) to electrify all households by December 2018.

It will cover more than 40 million families in rural and urban India - roughly a quarter of the population.

The "Saubhagya scheme" will largely be funded by the federal government.

The government also aims to provide free electricity to poor families identified by them based on socio-economic data.

It will bring "a monumental change in the lives of the poor", the PTI news agency quoted Mr Modi as saying on Monday.

About 300 million of India's 1.3 billion people are still not connected to the electricity distribution grid.

Although the households to be covered are spread across the country, the scheme primarily targets rural India where electrification rates are much lower.

Millions of rural Indians still rely on lamps fuelled by kerosene, the use of which the scheme hopes to cut. Kerosene is a huge health and environmental hazard and restricting its use would further India's ambitious climate goal to cut emissions.

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption More than 40 million Indian households remain unconnected to the power grid
The federal government launched an electrification programme in July 2015, under which thousands of villages were connected to the grid.

But unlike the earlier scheme, the Saubhagya initiative targets individual households rather than villages.

This is because a village is declared as electrified if 10% of households, schools, health centres and government offices have access to electricity.

Remote, and often inaccessible, villages have proved to be a major challenge in the electrification drive. The government has said it will distribute solar packs (comprising LED lights, a fan and a plug) and a battery bank to households in these villages.

Experts have said such a scheme will also expand the consumer base of state-owned power distribution companies that are struggling with debt and poor demand.

The idea is that these companies will now have to supply power to newly electrified households.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41397022

 

[beijingwalker]

Another great success after demonetization.

 

[ranjeet]

Suit boot ki sarkar.

 

[livingdead]

free electricity? do we have surplus

 

[kaykay]

free electricity? do we have surplus

Yes we have surplus electricity on average but there's a problem. Transmission!!! Example: Surplus is Gujarat can't be utilised in deficit in Bihar very efficiently due to transmission issues.

 

[The BrOkEn HeArT]

Good project. Just need to implement with honesty.

 

[livingdead]

Yes we have surplus electricity on average but there's a problem. Transmission!!! Example: Surplus is Gujarat can't be utilised in deficit in Bihar very efficiently due to transmission issues.

overall as a country do we have surplus? I very much doubt that, I think certain regions have surplus and certain regions have deficit... but overall we are still in deficit.

 

[oOo]

overall as a country do we have surplus? I very much doubt that, I think certain regions have surplus and certain regions have deficit... but overall we are still in deficit.

Yes we are or on the verge of it, that's what I heard from one of the interview of Piyush Goyal.

 

[kaykay]

overall as a country do we have surplus? I very much doubt that, I think certain regions have surplus and certain regions have deficit... but overall we are still in deficit.

http://m.economictimes.com/industry...-surplus-this-fiscal/articleshow/58900457.cms

 

[livingdead]

http://m.economictimes.com/industry...-surplus-this-fiscal/articleshow/58900457.cms

ok. thnkx

 

[Chhatrapati]

overall as a country do we have surplus? I very much doubt that, I think certain regions have surplus and certain regions have deficit... but overall we are still in deficit.

Yes, we have a surplus power. It is not something that is desirable. Surplus is measured in installed capacity of the plant. So, if a plant has 20MW installed capacity but the demand is only 10MW because there is no infrastructure to transmit the Generated 20MW. In most cases rich states have surplus and poor states have deficit, mainly because of unavailability of supply stations.

 

[livingdead]

Yes, we have a surplus power. It is not something that is desirable. Surplus is measured in installed capacity of the plant. So, if a plant has 20MW installed capacity but the demand is only 10MW because there is no infrastructure to transmit the Generated 20MW. In most cases rich states have surplus and poor states have deficit, mainly because of unavailability of supply stations.

ah.. did not know that.. so technically we got surplus on paper but in reality plants work in lower capacity in surplus areas because it is expensive to export to other states via grid?

 

[Chhatrapati]

ah.. did not know that.. so technically we got surplus on paper but in reality plants work in lower capacity in surplus areas because it is expensive to export to other states via grid?

Yes we got surplus because our stations are not running on full capacity, and if they can't run in full capacity the efficiency is also decreased.
Exporting is relatively expensive, we can export power from say Maharashtra to UP through a grid. The cost will be a little bit too high as it involves long distance transmission. Which results in powerline losses. say we export 100MW and with an efficiency of 75%. So, you need to export 125MW to get the benefit of 100MW.
Then there are a lot of unaccounted power which is either lost or stolen adding to other losses.

If we really want to make these corporations profitable, they need more consumers. Only way is providing power to all the houses.