Energy directorate fails to take off
Rakesh Lohumi
Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 3
Set up more than a year ago to put in place an effective mechanism to regulate and monitor the fast growing hydropower sector, the directorate of energy has virtually failed to take off due to indifferent attitude of the government.

The directorate has been making do with a skeletal staff of 19 persons out which only four are engineers. In absence of a functional directorate the power sector continues to be in a mess. The government is in no position to enforce the hydropower policy, exercise quality control in private sector projects, address important issues pertaining to sale of power, evacuation of power, regulatory matters plan and grant of techno-economic clearance. With the ongoing restructuring of the state electricity board the directorate will has to carry out a host of functions, including floating of tenders, evaluation of bids, scrutiny detailed project reports and all other related matters which require technical expertise.

The indifference of the government has led to situation where projects are nearing completion without the required transmission network for evacuation of power in place, techno-economic clearance being granted sans proper evaluation of projects, lack of control over quality and cost of private sector projects and vital issues like future power needs and power purchase agreements with the private sector projects remaining unaddressed.

A glaring example of the prevailing messy state of affairs pertains to the 1,000-MW Karcham Wangtu project coming up on the Sutlej in Kinnaur. While the state government is begging for additional power from the Centre to meet the winter shortfall, Jaypee Associates, the company executing the mega project, has signed an MoU with Punjab for supplying power at Rs 3 per unit.

The failure to “energise” the directorate of energy is indeed costing dearly to the state as the government has allowed the independent power producers to sell energy outside the state without bothering about its own requirement. In absence of proper supervision and monitoring, the quality of projects being executed in the private sector has been under suspect. Allotted on BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis the projects are to be handed over to the government after 40 years in running condition. However, engineers fear that most of these may not even last for four decades.

They maintain that for effectively handling all issues at least 100 experts specialising in engineering, financial, legal and regulatory matters are required to man the directorate. Delay in making the directorate functional could have long-term consequences for the state, which has already turned into a power-deficit state despite a potential of over 20,358 MW due to short-sighted policies of the government.