The Hindu Business Line : Open up nuclear sector for private players

New Delhi, July 2 The Centre is looking at opening up the country’s nuclear sector to private sector players, as well as participation by foreign firms.

“The Atomic Energy Act needs to be amended to permit private corporate investment in nuclear power, subject to regulation by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC),” the Economic Survey 2008-09 has said. It has also prescribed that rules need to be framed for allowing up to 49 per cent FDI in the sector.

The Survey has also said the nationalised coal sector is a major roadblock in the steady growth of power sector, which is the largest consumer of the dry fuel. “As long as the coal sector remains a public sector monopoly, it could remain a bottleneck for accelerated development of the power sector,” the Survey has noted.

The document has recommended the private sector’s entry into coal mining to help reverse the substitution of domestic coal by imported oil and coal. The reasons for the lower growth in power generation during the last financial year (2008-09) were shortage of coal and gas, shortfall in capacity addition, delay in achieving commercial operation or commencement of full generation from the plants, it has noted.

The plant load factor (PLF) or the efficiency of the coal-based thermal power plants declined during the period due to loss of generation because of shortage of fuel among other things, the survey pointed out. The power sector consumes nearly 74 per cent of the country’s coal production. Coal-fired thermal plants account for 66 per cent of the total 1,49,392 MW power generation in the country.

As against the capacity addition target of 7,530 MW for 2008-09, only 3,454 MW was added up to March 31, 2009, the Survey noted. The reasons for the underachievement of the target were delayed and non-sequential supply of material by suppliers, shortage of skilled manpower for construction and commissioning of projects, contractual disputes between project authorities, contractors and their sub-vendors, delay in readiness of balance of plants by the executing agencies.

The Survey has proposed that a competitive electricity production market that pays the full global cost of fuel will help eliminate inefficiencies in the current monopolistic state electricity supply system, where right from generation to distribution of power is handled by the respective state electricity boards. The Survey has also emphasised on the operationalisation of open access norm to promote competition in the sector. It also said the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana and other energy programmes should focus on biogas and solar energy in hilly or distant regions of the country.

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