Discoms Feel The Heat As Power Problem Peaks In Rajasthan

Amarpal Singh Verma

Hanumangarh (Rajasthan): Rajasthan, largest state in the country by area, goes through a severe power crisis every summer. This year too, there was no respite as temperatures in many places reached 50 degrees Celsius. It not only affected the energy needs, but also deeply impacted the economy and people in different ways.

The mercury began to soar in April and remained high until July-end. There was already high power consumption by industries. Tube wells started running for irrigation in the fields. The use of ACs and coolers in homes, offices and shops pushed up power consumption. The electricity corporations started cutting supply at the end of June. Supply remained adequate in big cities, but unannounced power cuts made life miserable in small towns and villages.

A recent study conducted by NGO Orange Tree Foundation confirmed the unannounced power cut.

According to the study, rural areas of the state have an average power cut of 12 hours per day, while in urban areas it is 0 to 6 hours per day. About 60% of Rajasthan’s rural population waits for more than six hours for power restoration after complaining, while only 13% of consumers in urban areas have to wait that long.

Payal S, co-director, Orange Tree Foundation, told 101Reporters that they conducted the study for APCO Infra in 12 selected urban and rural areas in Jodhpur, Jaipur and Banswara districts. The entire report has not been made public, but it shows that in this digital era, education, healthcare and many other services depend on reliable internet and computer access, hence continuous 24-hour power supply is important.

As the crisis deepened, it became difficult for farmers to irrigate their fields. Work in government offices in villages got affected. Complaints of equipment damage due to low voltage poured in. A serious power crisis engulfed the entire state.

“It is the arrival of monsoon that finally saves the state from the crisis every year. This time, most parts of the state got monsoon rains by end of July, which reduced the electricity needs of farmers. The electricity saved from the agriculture sector was used in the homes of common people and by industries,” said Rampal Jat, national president, Kisan Mahapanchayat.

Politics At Play

People in villages and towns have been expressing their displeasure by protesting in front of electricity offices, and the issue of power crisis also dominated the State Assembly. Power crisis echoed in the Lok Sabha as well.

The state government accepted in the Assembly on July 22 that the heat wave continued mostly through the night this time, so power consumption increased everywhere. The demand has increased by about 25 to 28%, previously demand used to go up by 10 to 11%. Due to this, power cuts of two, two-and-a-half and three hours had to be implemented.

The government said that due to the heat wave, consumption of electricity increased from May to July. The average power consumption in May was 3,318 lakh units per day (25% more than the units consumed in the same month last year), 3,438 lakh units per day in June (28% more) and 3,024 lakh units per day in July (14% more). The maximum consumption of Rajasthan discoms in June this year was 3,785 lakh units, which is the highest ever.

Former state energy minister Pushpendra Singh Ranawat said that the power load has been increasing continuously in the last decade, but energy assessment has not happened in the state. “This is a major reason for the crisis,” he claimed.

“Discoms have not worked on bettering transmission. No attention has been paid to infrastructure,” he added.

However, during a discussion on the power crisis in the Assembly on August 2, Energy Minister Heeralal Nagar blamed the previous Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot for neglecting power generation, transmission and distribution.

Nagar said that due to not being able to start coal mining from the allotted coal block, coal was imported from Chhattisgarh at the rate of Rs 18,000 per tonne against the usual Rs 4,000 per tonne. He alleged that during the previous government, the thermal power plants of the state produced only 50% of their installed capacity of 7,580 MW. “We have increased Plant Load Factor, improved generation plants and increased production capacity by ensuring timely supply of coal.”

The Gehlot government also borrowed electricity to meet the demand of rabi season last year, according to Nagar’s Assembly statement. He said the previous government borrowed 35,234 lakh units of electricity from other states through banking arrangements.

“Even in this difficult situation, our government has to return this loan by cutting the electricity of its own state. By July, about 24,000 lakh units of power have been returned and about 11,000 lakh units have to be returned in the next two months,” he claimed.

Solar Hope

Jodhpur discom retired chief engineer MS Charan said there should be a future-oriented energy assessment of how much electricity would be needed and how the demand will be met. He felt solar energy could be a possible alternative to coal-based power.

“Rajasthan has possibilities on the solar front, but infrastructure development is not happening at the expected pace. If it happens like a mass movement with complete transparency, then we can get rid of power cuts during the day,” he said, adding that the state’s 18 lakh farmers should be weaned away from night time grid electricity.

“Agriculture and industries will have to be connected to solar. Schemes such as PM Surya Ghar and PM-KUSUM should be implemented,” he added.

Entrepreneurs also have hopes on solar energy. Federation of Rajasthan Trade and Industry president Suresh Agarwal said that the government should make industries solar-based. “At present, we use very expensive electricity in our industries compared to  other states. Solar energy production should be increased in the state and industries should be encouraged to instal subsidised solar systems.”

Agarwal noted that a manufacturing unit for solar panels should be set up in the state. “Companies in the state are dependent on China and Gujarat for the purchase of solar panels. There are only five solar panel manufacturing companies in Rajasthan, of which only one is a big company. If the government promotes the solar panel industry, solar energy will become cheaper here. The government will get revenue and the needy will get employment,” he suggested.

Prem Biyani, executive president, Akhil Rajya Trade and Industry Association, said that load shedding has been increasing manufacturing costs and making products more expensive. Nilesh Sancheti, vice president, Jodhpur-based Marudhara Industries Association, claimed that as soon as there was a power crisis, industries were made victims of power cuts. “Tripping, wastage and theft of electricity are also major reasons for the crisis, which should be paid attention to. Promoting solar energy is the only solution.”

Like industries, households are also finding it difficult to cope with the power crisis. The fixed charges were increased last month.

Tiding Over System Weakness

Complaints of consumers are justified, but along with electricity shortage, structural challenges of discoms are also aggravating the crisis. An electricity official, on the condition of anonymity, said that weakness in the power distribution system is a main reason for this.

“Old and worn-out wires, reduced capacity of transformers and loss during distribution also cause the power crisis to worsen. Tripping is another problem.”

New technologies should be used to overcome these weaknesses. The use of smart grids and modern transformers can be an important step, but loss-making discoms will have difficulty implementing it. According to the information given by the government in the Assembly in January, Ajmer, Jodhpur and Jaipur discoms, Rajasthan State Electricity Transmission Corporation and Rajasthan State Electricity Generation Corporation have suffered a loss of Rs 8,824.43 crore in 2022-23, which has taken the net loss to Rs 1,10,655 crore. Former minister Ranawat claimed that discoms had come into profit in 2017-18, but later became victims of mismanagement.

Construction of new grid substation, separation of agricultural and domestic lines and installation of new cables are needed for comprehensive improvement of electricity infrastructure in the region.

Aakash Sharma, a researcher at Jaipur-based NGO CUTS International, said that coal for Suratgarh and Chhabra thermal power plants comes from faraway Chhattisgarh, the price of which is further increased by heavy transportation and landed costs. Buying imported coal puts an additional burden of billions of rupees on the state. This is recovered from consumers in the form of additional fuel surcharge. In such a situation, it is better that the Rajasthan government sets up power plants near coal mines in Chhattisgarh and brings electricity through the national grid.

But Ranawat does not consider this suggestion useful as power companies already suffer from huge losses.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to work to increase power generation in the next three years. On August 8, in the presence of Energy Minister Hiralal Nagar, Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) worth Rs 4,200 crore with GAIL India at the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Business Promotion Summit-2024, Jaipur.

It is claimed that this will provide cheap gas for gas-based power plants located in Dholpur and Ramgarh, which will generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity. The state government has also signed several MoUs with central undertakings to make the state self-reliant in the field of electricity.

(Amarpal Singh Verma is a Rajasthan-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters)