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 Union
Power Minister Suresh Prabhu spoke to Principal Correspondent Sayantan
Chakravarty on the grid failure, the crumbling system and long-term
solutions. Excerpts:
Q.
What do you think caused the unprecedented blackout across seven
states and a Union territory?
A.
Preliminary
probe by the Power Grid Corporation suggests that there was a large-scale
'grid indiscipline'.
Q.
Can you elaborate?
A.
When a particular sector trips, the others become overloaded. The
Power Grid Corporation, which runs the Regional Load Despatch Centre
to maintain a balance in the grid, asks some plants to cut generation
so that the other sectors don't become overloaded. Repeated instructions,
it appears, went unheeded.
Q.
What is the estimate of the revenue loss to the Government as a
result of the grid failure?
A.
We generated 15,500 mw less power as a result of the failure, which
is equivalent to about a day's production in the affected region.
The loss worked out to about Rs 125 crore.
Q.
What corrective action will you take?
A.
The punishment will be harsh keeping in view the high revenue loss
to the Government, besides the nearly Rs 500 crore estimated loss
to the industry. I shall make both the report and the action public.
Q.
Isn't the grid collapse a symptom of a bigger malaise in the system?
A.
Any major grid collapse is caused by a number of factors that contribute
to the failure of a system.
Q.
Like what?
A.
In
the past 10-15 years problems like wide frequency fluctuations caused
by overdrawing of power by the state electricity boards (SEB) has
adversely affected the system. There is also overgeneration by power
plants.
Q.
There must be other deep-rooted problems.
A.
Yes.
Look at the losses. Because the difference between our gross cost
per unit (Rs 2.80) and the average per unit tariff (Rs 2.07) is
73 paise, the annual loss is to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore. Losses
from theft make for another Rs 20,000 crore.
Q.
How long do you think will the situation persist?
A.
We need to bring down our transmission and distribution losses on
a war-footing. This is possible if we immediately invest Rs 40,000
crore every year in improving transmission and distribution. There
is no further scope for academic debates and seminars on this.
Q.
Are politicians responsible for the present state of affairs?
A.
We have a vote bank to cater to, so we become emotional. Unfortunately,
the motion of turbines does not understand emotion. Generation of
power must be on commercial considerations.
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METRO TODAY
As
the Government brings in more people and mops more money in taxes, it
must be seen to be rewarding those who come forth and pay up, writes India
Today Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 
