The Congress Party has committed itself to a quantum leap in the power generation capacity to be added every year. In its election manifesto, the party said it will be ensured that the country adds at least 12,000-15,000 Mw of capacity every year through a mix of sources coal, hydel, nuclear and renewable.
This would be a significant leap over the current pace; which was less than 4,000 Mw last year and a record of over 9,000 Mw the year before. Industry officials say such a feat is only possible if some key issues are tackled by the new government.
We need to have clarity on certain policy issues like land acquisition and fuel availability. These are the two critical factors that will determine whether our target of achieving over 90,000 Mw in five years will succeed or not, says Lalit Jalan, chief executive at Reliance Infrastructure.
While capacity addition is the need of the hour, given that the country recorded a peak deficit of 12 per cent last year, the new government would also have to address the problem of transmission and distribution losses.
Reduction of distribution losses, as well as rural electrification, will be given the highest priority, according to the manifesto.
In the oil and gas sphere, it talks of the partys intention to improve oil diplomacy and intensify domestic oil exploration and production. One way of doing this is to continue the auction of oil and gas blocks for exploration to Indian and foreign companies under the new exploration and licensing policy or Nelp.
The object of energy security for all would be fulfilled by implementing an Integrated Energy Policy. This was also flagged as an agenda item for the new government in the interim budget announced in February.
