Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 13: To provide power to all households, the state government has sought Rs 8900 crore from the Centre under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated power development scheme (IPDS).
The state raised the demand at the conference of power ministers of all states and UTs held recently at Guwahati. While Rs 4700 crore demanded under the DDUGJY scheme, Rs 4200 crore under IPDS. Addressing the conference, the energy minister Pranab Prakash Das said that as per the 2011 census, out of 47677 villages, 40442 villages have been electrified and out of 9637820 numbers of households 5167284 have been provided power. As of now, the total number of households electrified in the state is 54 per cent and village electrified is 85 per cent.
“Presently, the aggregated technical and commercial (AT&C) loss in the area of power supply in the state is 39.72 per cent. Basing on the execution of different infrastructure works, at different field on priority basis the AT&C loss level can be reduced in a phased manner to 20.520 per cent as projected by the Centre. Considering the load growth up to 2019, a funding of approximate to Rs 4700 crore is required by the power distribution companies (discoms),” the energy said at the conference.
There are 21 electrical circles in the discoms covering 111 statutory towns. Restructured accelerated power development and reforms programme (R-APDRP) assistance of Rs 396 crore for central electricity supply utility of Orissa (CESU) was considered by the Union government, out of which first installment of Rs 79.2 crore has been disbursed so far. Basing on the requirement of the system `4200 crore is required for enabling IPDS in a time bound manner, Das said.
IPDS envisaged for round the clock power supply to urban consumers, reduction of AT&C loss and access of electricity to all urban households. Highlighting state government’s initiatives on promotion of green energy, the minister said, “Since renewable power plants are capital intensive and have a longer gestation period, they need incentives in the form of tariff subsidy or soft financing. We request the Union government to come up with subsidized financing schemes for renewable energy.”
Das also suggested that such subsidy should also be made available for transmission systems required for Grid connectivity of renewable power plants. The minister also sought financial assistance to state under national clean energy fund (NCEF).