India's average power availability increased to 22.5 hours in rural, 23.5 hours in urban areas: Centre informs Parliament
- In Reports
- 10:09 PM, Feb 07, 2023
- Myind Staff
India's power availability on average has gone up to 22.5 hours in rural areas and 23.5 hours in urban areas, the Centre informed the Parliament on Tuesday. Union Power Minister RK Singh in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha said that a record power demand of 211.6 GW was met by the Indian power system in June 2022.
According to Singh, the power demand of the country is expected to rise to 225 GW during summer. In order to meet the increasing power demand, the government created an additional of 175 GW of power generation capacity from 2014 till 31 December 2022. A total of 1.73 lakh circuit km of transmission lines and 6,21,176 MVA of transportation were done during the same period.
The distribution system has been strengthened at a cost of Rs 2.02 Lakh crore under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), Saubhagya and IPDS schemes, reported India Infrahub. The money was utilised for adding 2,927 new substations, upgrading 3,964 substations and adding 8.48 lakh ckt km of high-tension and low-tension lines after the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.
The government also took some other measures to meet the power demand which included the addition of 175 GW of power generation capacity and the improvement of the distribution system with a cost of Rs 2.02 Lakh crore. Additionally, it allowed 100 per cent FDI for power projects and promoted energy development.
Notably, the RDSS scheme was also launched to improve the quality and reliability of power supply and even waived ISTS charges for renewable energy transmission. The Central government has reportedly coordinated with the coal and railway ministries to ensure the availability of generation capacity.
It asked generators to import coal to maximise coal production from captive coal blocks. It has also arranged an additional gas supply.
It is to be noted that the Electricity Amendment Rules, 2022 were notified on December 2022. These rules mandated the preparation of a resource adequacy plan to meet the power demand of the consumers.
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