The peak power demand deficit in the country has almost been “wiped out” through government interventions, the Union power ministry has claimed.
Sharing data since 2007-08, the ministry has said in a statement that the deficit stood at 0.4 percent in 2020-21, compared to 16.6 percent in 2007-08 and 10.6 percent in 2011-12.
In the current year (2021-22) till October, the peak power demand has been (-)1.2 percent and the marginal spike was attributable to the annual post-monsoon pressure on power output. This is also likely to normalise by the end of the year, the statement said.
Peak power deficit is the difference between peak power in the country in a particular year and the demand that was met.
“Through the multi-pronged, comprehensive and aggressive interventions of the government, this deficit is near about wiped out, consistently over the last three years – 0.4 percent in 2020-21, 0.7 percent in 2019-20 and 0.8 percent in 2018-19,” the statement said.
This transformation from an acutely power deficit country to a situation of demand being met, except for an extremely marginal shortfall of less than 1 percent, has been made possible by the schemes brought in by the current government to address the unhappy situation, it said.
The government schemes include Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY), which was brought in July 2015 for infrastructure push in the rural sector, and the Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), which was introduced in November 2014 to address power infrastructure gaps in urban areas.
The statement said the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) scheme launched in September 2017 had the vision to take electricity to every household (willing). It has been able to supply electricity connections to 2.8 to crore households which were hither to in darkness, it added.
In the last nearly seven years, the augmentation of the installed power capacity in the country has been 1,55,377 MW.
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