The Hindu Business Line : Tackling power crisis, the Pune way

The Confederation of Indian Industry's Pune chapter and its former chief, Mr Pradeep Bhargava, who led a public-private initiative that helped citizens overcome a crippling power shortage earlier this year, are now being wooed by industry bodies across the country that are finding life and business affected by the paucity of power.

Enthused by the fact that Pune is now a zero-load shedding zone, thanks to corporate houses that used their idle generators to make captive power, industry bodies from Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, and places such as Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad and Ludhiana have now sought CII - Pune's help to replicate the Pune model.

About 30 corporates were encouraged to utilise their idle generators to make captive power for their consumption, so that the decreased load on the grid could be used for supply to the rest of the city. Pune consumers pay an extra 40 paise for every unit they consume over 300 units for the enhanced power supply. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDC) compensates these corporates for the difference in the operation cost of running their captive power plants and the electricity bill they would incur for consuming power from the grid.

Implementing the project is a complex task, says Mr Bhargava; it involves finding cities/towns that have a high density of generators, low transfer and distribution loss (T&D), not to mention citizens who are ready to pay for the convenience of guaranteed power supply. "It is pointless waiting for the government to perform. Industry and citizens must realise that there are no free lunches anymore and everybody has to chip in for their own good." With the city now well into six months of zero-load shedding, Mr Bhargava and his team are now helping other cities in Maharashtra such as Nashik and Kolhapur, which are highly industrialised, go the Pune way. Talks are already on with industry members in these places and once the MSEDC and CII are ready with their proposal, they have to approach the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission, which will conduct public hearings to hear citizens' opinion on the project.

"Towns such as Aurangabad and Nagpur also want help with similar projects, but these places have high T&D losses and we have to work a way around these problems before we look at implementing it there," adds Mr Bhargava.