Highlighting the outcome of the initiatives taken by the government to ramp up India’s distribution and transmission sector, Power Minister RK Singh noted that the country’s electricity consumption rose by 25 per cent on a year-on-year basis, while the economy grew by 8 per cent.

Singh, who also holds the charge for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), noted that the efforts by the Centre to strengthen India’s debt-laden power sector have resulted in electricity demand growing from 3,500 million units (MU) per day to 4,500 MU.

Power demand

“Power demand has gone up by 25 per cent in one year, while the Indian economy has grown by 8 per cent. How was this possible? We made this possible. The record power consumption in the country is a fair indication of the work done by the Power Ministry,” Singh told the BusinessLine in an exclusive interview.

Emphasising on the scale of reforms undertaken by the Centre, Singh pointed out that now companies transfer 1,12,000 megawatts (MW) of power from one corner to another. The government spent more than ₹2 lakh crore just on the power distribution segment.

Infrastructure development

The government also added 2,950-odd new sub-stations and upgraded around 3,900 old substations to higher capacity. Low tension (LT) lines of up to 7.5 lakh circuit km as well as high tension (HT) lines of 2.5 lakh circuit km, along with 7.50 lakh transformers, were added.

The higher consumption is also a reflection of the Centre’s effort to connect every home with power lines. The government connected 2.86 crore homes across the country and is making sure that there is enough power.

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