Why need to purchase excess power?

If India was a power surplus now, why is the need to purchase excess power.
– Neelav Samrat De, Asst. General Manager-Marketing, ANDRITZ India Pvt Ltd
  Andritz India Pvt. Ltd was the first MNC in the hydro power sector to enter the sector in 1999. Since then, it has had the opportunity to win contracts on a competitive basis to execute the electro-mechanical packages of numerous projects under the aegis of NHPC, SJVN, NEEPCO, KSEB, TANGEDCO, KPCL, HPPCL, JKSPDC, Athena Group, Jai Prakash, KSEB, MeSEB amongst other clients in Vietnam, Lao PDR, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and also in Europe and Canada.  The company also has 60 per cent of Nepal’s hydro market share, which is a proud milestone for them.
Andritz India adapted to manufacturing a majority of the equipment from its local works in Prithla and Mandideep to become cost competitive. While keeping a strong tab on quality assurance and timely deliveries of its esteemed clients, it has created a strong brand of the company in India and the South East Asian region today.
The company is also ramping up its manufacturing capacities as it plans to diversify into other sectors relevant for the growth of the country.
Dismal situation in the marketTechnically, India is power surplus today. The essence lies in the fact that the manufacturing industry has not growth at par with demand and the main reason why the demand and supply gap has reduced. There are many states which do not have enough power supplies for its agricultural requirements and are having to purchase power from the exchanges at higher tariffs. “If India was a power surplus now, why is the need to purchase excess power? Secondly, there are numerous power plants, which are completely built but are lying idle due to lack of coal linkages. The situation is dismal as otherwise portrayed in the market. So either we say we are and will be power surplus in 2016-17 or the government puts an impetus on the growth of the manufacturing sector. We have opted to use the former,” states Neelav Samrat De, Asst. General Manager-Marketing, Andritz India Pvt Ltd while not being very happy about the dismal situation in power sector.   India is shifting its fore from industry and becoming a services driven economy. “While we are witnessing a slump in sectors like infrastructure, manufacturing, IT and others, there is a sharp growth in the services sector. Power demand will obviously decrease with this changing scenario in the economy and hence we can say that we are ‘technically’ power surplus. With no growth in industry, the demand factor will always remain less than the supply,” he adds.
Is there really any game changer?  Capacity additions in thermal and renewable have happened in the last 2-3 years. But these are roll-overs or spillages from the previous Five-Year Plan. Recently, we heard the government’s keenness to develop 10,000 MW of hydro pumped storage schemes. This is a good step to tackle grid stability as we see a growth in the solar power segment. The solar segment has crossed the 22GW mark and another 9GW are under tendering. This renewable grid connected power will need stability which can be done with the introduction of PSPs. “Hydro also plays an important role in grid stability as it requires lesser time to shut down as compared to thermal plants,” emphasised De.

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