High-voltage drama in Bihar

More than mere lip service, a sense of urgency is required to resolve the power crisis in Bihar

Bihar is reeling under a power crisis. It has the lowest per capita power consumption -- 85 units as against the national average of 715 units -- and the highest peak deficit at 33.7 percent. Bihar's total installed power capacity is 385 MW which is at present producing virtually zero MW and the state is dependent on the central grid for power generation, which supplies 900 to 1,500 MW against the 1,600 MW allocations to the state per day. In fact, only 4% of this power availability is contributed by the state while the rest 96% is drawn from the central sector.
Sadly, only 19,131 of the total of 45,103 villages in the state are electrified. This means that the percentage of villages electrified in the state is less than half of the national average of 86.6 per cent.
But if the energy minister of state Bijendra Prasad Yadav is to be believed, Bihar would have sufficient power by the year 2015-16 as many units including Nabinagar thermal power plant would become operational and renovation of Barauni and Kanti power units would be completed. Besides, the Centre has okayed coal linkages to the proposed Kajra and Pirpainti power plants. The cumulative generation from all these power units would definitely put the state on the power map of India, the minister said.
The energy minister said that by the end of 2012, the power scenario would start improving. The state would also get power from Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. This apart, the government is planning to construct 200 biomass units for power generation. Besides, 1,400 husk power system units would be set up to provide power to villages. He further mentioned that solar power units with a capacity to 2 HP pump would be provided to farmers so that they could irrigate their farms. The farmers would have to bear only 10% of the cost and the rest would be borne by the state government. The Central government also gives subsidy on such solar units, he added.
This comes as good news for a state that till now has been haunted by prolonged power cuts. The severe power crisis prevailing in the state has resulted in law and order problem with agitated people taking to streets in various parts of the state.

Barring Patna, power is virtually non-existent in the other parts of the state. Big announcements were made. Three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) were signed amid much hype. Yet people of Bihar are yet to get any relief from the on-going power crisis. "It will take at least five years to implement all such promises," admits a senior government official.
The replacement of burnt power transformers in remote areas continues to be wishful thinking for the villagers. "We do not depend on the power board for replacement of transformers. That has never worked out. Instead, we collect donations from the local people. It’s a do-in-yourself formula," said Prabhat of Siwan district.
Some of the better-known big nursing homes in the state capital have purchased high-capacity generators in view of the large number of patients admitted there. "Now our main investment is on costly generators to run our business," said Akash of Pataliputra Colony.
"We have learnt to live without power in districts. Forget about TV, fridges and coolers. They have become showpieces in our houses," said Nikhil of Madhepura.
Power position in Bihar is very critical and the state is totally dependent on allocation from the Central sector for meeting its power requirement, which is adversely affecting the overall prosperity of the state, including its industrial and agricultural growth.
The essential power requirement to meet the load of railways, defence, industries, grid sub-stations and power houses, is around 300-350 MW.

Sorry figures
Bihar is perhaps the state having the lowest number of power consumers in the country. Out of the total population of around 11.5 crore, there are only 21 lac effective domestic power connections in the state.
"If there are four persons consuming power from each domestic connection, it means number of power consumers in the state is 84 lac, much less than even one crore. In other words, not even 10 percent of the total population of Bihar. Inquiries disclosed there are only 31.1 lac registered and 23.4 lac effective power connections in the state, including non-domestic and connections like irrigation and industrial units," said an official.
Power consumption is one of the parameters of any developed state and it indicates the state is under-developed. There are over 3.25 lac non-domestic power consumers in Bihar. Statistics say there has been no growth of any major or minor industrial units in the state for several years. With almost complete absence of industrial units, the power consumers are restricted primarily to domestic sector only.
In the non-domestic sectors, there are major chunk of consumers who are running flour mills, timber mills, computer centres, beauty parlours, printing press, departmental and garment stores.

So, there are few industrial units consuming power in the state. Statistics say that there are over 82,000 such consumers in the state.
Only six per cent households are electrified in the state as against the national average of 35 per cent. Interestingly, power supply to 10,005 villages in Bihar has been disconnected over the years due to non-payment of bills, theft of materials and natural calamities.
As per the 2001 census, only 5.13 per cent of rural households in Bihar were electrified, which was the lowest in the country. The total number of rural households in Bihar was 1.26 crore.

Vision 2020
Bihar State Electricity Board, in its concept note on power vision 2020, has admitted that the existing per capita consumption of 75 units is expected to grow 10 times by 2012.
Requirement of power by the year 2012 will be 11,500 MW in peak hours and 9,000 MW in off peak hours. It appears that there will be a deficit of 4,400 MW in peak and 1,900 MW in off peak.
The projected demand of power as per the vision 2020 include the peak demand of 15,738 MW and off peak 12,316 MW. There will be a big deficit in available power and the demand by the year 2020. As such for meeting the demand, possibility of taking up many more new projects will have to be explored.
The BSEB roadmap includes commissioning of two major power projects at Nabinagar and Chousa. The Nabinagar project in Aurangabad district with five generation units is being built in collaboration with NTPC and will have an installed capacity to generate 3,300 MW. The Chousa project in Buxar district, being executed by the BSEB, will generate 1,320 MW on its completion.
In addition to this the government is banking on the NTPC-owned Barauni and Kanti thermal power plants which are undergoing modernisation and are together expected to generate over 600 MW. Besides, the government is also concentrating on its small hydro-electricity projects at Balmikinagar, Bathnaha and Arwal, which would together generate around 50 MW of power for the state. Added to that will be NTPC’s 2,000 MW super thermal power project at Barh which is expected to be commissioned within five years and will give its share of power to the state.
However, with a total of 5,000 MW of power, the projected generation may not be enough to meet the 2015 or 2020 demands.
Non-availability of suitable land and adequate water has been proving a bottleneck in setting up new power plants in Bihar.
About 2,200 acres of land was acquired for setting up a 660x2 MW thermal power plant at Chausa in Buxar district. However, villagers had filed a case in the Patna High Court against the acquisition.
Also, the BSEB had to abandon about 3,000 acres of land at Sandesh in Bhojpur district due to non-availability of adequate water. This land was earlier identified for setting up a 2,000-MW power plant as a BSEB-NTPC joint venture.

Other options
The state has in the hydel sector an installed capacity of 55 MW currently and it is hoped that another 20 MW would be added by the end of this year through projects under execution. All these projects are canal based.
The Bihar Hydel Power Corporation (BHPC) is now venturing into another area by planning installation of run of river hydropower plants in the Kosi basin. Already there are three plants with accumulated capacity of 28 MW. These include Bathnaha Phase-1 (8MW) Ararghat (12MW) and Nirmali (8MW).
On the nuclear energy front, Bihar government had requested Nuclear Power Corporation Limited for the installation of 4x700 MW nuclear power project at Rajauli for which a team of experts has already visited for site selection few years back. Approximately 3150 acre of land has been identified at Rajauli for setting up 4x700 MW nuclear power station.
Some young entrepreneurs like Gyanesh Pandey have taken initiatives in generating power through rice husk in remote areas of Bihar. Husk Power Systems (HPS) has already successfully implemented rural electrification (RE) projects in 50 remote, totally off-grid, virgin villages of West Champaran and is set to dramatically expand its footprints in the coming years. HPS is a RE company's unique biomass gasification technology which converts rice husks into electricity, which is not only used for lighting but also for small fans, TVs and radios.