Efficient power distribution with UDAY

Himanshu Yadav, Director, Ultimate Sun Systems Pvt Ltd.

30th July 2012, was the dooms day for Indian Power Sector, rather it was the blackest day in the history of the India power sector, where the country faced the largest power outage, leaving 62 crore people in darkness. Since then we have come a long way and today India ranks 26th in the World Bank’s electricity accessibility ranking, making a major leap from the 99th spot in 2014, recalls Himanshu Yadav, Director, Ultimate Sun Systems Pvt Ltd .

Today Yadav firmly says, “There had been a lot of initiatives and a lot among them has started delivering which has resulted to the current status of rank 26th. After three years of governance, the biggest hit of this sector is the fact that India, for the first time in the history, became a power surplus country.”

India’s total power capacity increased from 243 GW in March 2014 to 320 GW in March 2017, a notable growth of 31 per cent. In compare to earlier regime, the current governance has come up with reforms and schemes along with a fierce implementation which has resulted to the power surpluses scenario. To name a few like, coal redemption which has resulted to coal-based power capacity has increased by 26 per cent from 214 GW in March 2014 to 270 GW in March 2017. UDAY scheme for discoms made the State responsible and accountable for their deeds. Where the government had a clear mandate of “Perform or Perish”. Under Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana focusing on rural electrification infrastructure, the number of un-electrified villages in 2014 stood at 18,452 which stand at 4,039. However Yadav points out that there had been some areas where the due importance was lacking like no enhancing of hydro capacity; some drive or scheme to achieve the humongous target of 100 GW by solar to quickly consider; fixation of low bids, domestic manufacturing and storage of solar need to be pushed. Thus, he acknowledges that there had been a lot of overall improvement but at the same time there are a lot to do.

UDAY: The game changer
According to Yadav, Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) that is designed to turn around highly indebted state power distribution companies is the major game changer, which will effectively bring the efficient and healthy power distributors will be able to purchase more power from generators, while keeping consumer’s power bills to the minimum.

USSPL believes along with UDAY the push to meet the target in solar sector and also introducing different usage of solar in house hold and daily areas will focus on decentralise and rural generation. “Introduction of electric vehicles also will be one of the major game changer if not 2017 but by 2022 where government is focusing to bring in,” Yadav says.

Few schemes like UDAY which was introduced and had garnered benefits within the sector which has resulted in improvement in the health of distribution sectors. Secondly, introduction and impetus of renewable source of generation (like solar and wind) had lessened the burden within the grid nationally, which has resulted for good within overall sector health condition.