I have been in the power industry for over a decade and to tell the truth, the sector was stressed to it's balls. State boards didn't have the money to pay the Power generation companies. The major Challenge was infusing liquidity into the sector which was dried of revenue. Electricity is just not a generation, its the single biggest techno economic machine of the country. and other than Gujarat and Chattishgarh were in severe cash deficit.
The problem :
Coal India was not producing enough coal to feed the plants, States were drawing more than their Quota of electricity, driving high UI (unscheduled interchange) resulting in lowering of grid frequency resulting in High revenue loses for generation companies as well as State grids also the state boards were not paying their bills to make matters worse, lowering of frequency also causes inefficiency of system loads resulting in high capacitive and Inductive loses which drove transmission losses higher.
You can infer from the above it was systematic plague. Because of the loss of revenue, generation companies were facing losses, LAB has killed the prospect of new mega scale project coming up. So what you have is
1. low Fuel
2. high energy demand
3. no revenue.
4. mounting pressure of lenders to pay up.
5. Point 4 affected the banking system, increasing NPAs
6. this stalled New investments in the sector
7. Result was other industries linked to power started getting affected. Domino Effect.
The act of destressing an entire sector as huge as the electrical grid (power sector) will take time simply because the entire supply chain (Fuel to electricity) needs to be overhauled that includes the capital supply (debt restructuring, re negotiation of Power purchase agreements). In 2013-14 power sector was on its death bed. To study the dilemma and come up with a remedy is not an easy task, and to pull the sector out of its misery is not an overnight task , quite fankly till 2015 January, i was thinking to migrate to US or EU, hell even Vietnam would have been better.
Now, there are two facets that you look up to a government's work 1. Policy Initiatives. 2 General Perception. For people it might be that my district didn't get electricity hence Modi Government is bad, while from my perspective, the entire power system of the country was staring at bankruptcy and the power economy would have gone Kaput. I am thank full to Piyush Goyal for what he has done, he is god send. He might not have created jobs but he saved me and thousands like me from going jobless and begging on the streets, and saved this country's power sector other wise we would have been largely like Siddharamiya's Bangalore or Like Pakistan's Power scene. Look at the initiative he took to ensure fuel supply to plants to enable the power DisComs to make payments, streamlining of projects, ensuring rule of law in power trading. The sector was on life support previously, now its still sick but its out of ICU, and it will live to see another day.
Hope this explanation is enough. The perception management is something this government is failing, and it will still fail cuz the propaganda is running high from the Delhi Club. This government has still 3 years to go to complete its promises. I'll give this govt its full term to do its work then pass judgements, Piyush is doing an excellent job and I, for one, will be grateful to him.
They are two different topics and I do admit my mood changes with the gusts of cool wind I can feel on my face as no bijli right now.
