Power for All

The Central government has committed itself to providing affordable, 24x7 power to all households by 2019. The availability of quality, reliable and affordable power helps in the rapid socio-economic growth of the country especially the backward region.

The government has launched Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) with the objective of separating agriculture and non-agriculture feeders to enable Discoms in the judicious rostering of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers, strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure including metering in rural areas and rural electrification including micro grid and off grid distribution network. The scheme is an improvement over the previous programmes as it provides cafeteria approach to the States in prioritizing their needs rather than a straight-jacketed approach of ‘One Size Fits All’.

With regard to efficient use of energy, domestic lighting & street lighting system is already progressing towards efficiency through utmost use of LED lights. There is huge increase in thermal based electricity, doubling the coal production to 100 crore tonnes by 2020. During 2014-15 against the target of 20882 ckm of transmission lines and 47871MVA of transmission capacity have been 22100ckm and 65554 MVA respectively, which is the highest achievement ever in a year. The government recently concluded e-auction of 29 coal mines in 2 phases.

The total proceeds from the coal mines auction cave crossed Rs. 1.93 lakh crore surpassing CAG estimate of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore losses on account of allocation of 206 captive coal blocks without auction since 1993. Comprehensive state-specific action plans for 24x7 power to all homes is being prepared in partnership with respective states, encompassing generation, transmission and distribution. The power ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government under its 'Power for all' initiative that aims to cover the entire state by October 2016.

A National Smart Grid Mission is going to be launched to address key issues of Smart Grid Initiatives on a large scale in the country Though the Union government has agreed to include Telangana in the Power For All ( PFA) scheme, which is intended to provide 24x7 power supply to domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, it will have to wait for another two years before the scheme becomes a reality.