The Hindu Business Line : <I>On energy independence </I>

Almost since he assumed the nation's highest office, the President, Mr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, has been stressing the vital importance of energy independence. His anxiety about the widening gap between availability and requirement of energy for sustaining, if not accelerating, the pace of economic growth in step with the needs of exploding population is fully justified.

He has now come up with a specific blue-print for pushing up energy development by tripling the installed capacity from the present 130,000 MW to 400,000 MW by 2030. Of the extra 270,000 MW envisaged, 115,000 MW will be from thermal power and renewable sources, 55,000 MW from large-scale solar energy farms, 50,000 MW from nuclear plants, and a like quantity from hydel power.

The plan suffers from at least three serious flaws: First and foremost is the absence of any mention of methods of mobilising a total of not less than Rs 2 lakh crore each year for the next 25 years for making the figures visualised into a reality. The second is the disproportionate place given to nuclear power and the technical and financial hurdles confronting it. Given that the country has taken 50 years to arrive at an installed capacity of 2,700 MW, it will be near-impossible to catapult it to 50,000 MW in 25 years, unless a miracle happens on the technological and financial fronts.

The third is want of any reference to improving the plant load factor and curbing transmission and distribution losses of close to 40-45 per cent.

By increasing the efficiency of operation and maintenance to optimum (not superhuman) levels, more than 50,000 MW can be retrieved for the system (and the GDP raised) right away without spending a single extra rupee.

However, stretch targets have their uses and Dr Kalam's plan will certainly help intensify efforts in the desired directions.

B. S. RAGHAVAN