PROBLEMS WITH INDIAN POWER SECTOR

• Government giveaways such as free electricity for farmers, partly to curry political favour, have depleted the cash reserves of state-run electricity-distribution system. This has financially crippled the distribution network, and its ability to pay for power to meet the demand.                                                                                                                                                                                      
• Shortages of fuel: despite abundant reserves of coal, India is facing a severe shortage of coal. The country isn't producing enough to feed its power plants. Some plants do not have reserve coal supplies to last a day of operations.India's monopoly coal producer, state-controlled Coal India, is constrained by primitive mining techniques and is rife with theft and corruption; Coal India has consistently missed production targets and growth targets. Poor coal transport infrastructure has worsened these problems. To expand its coal production capacity, Coal India needs to mine new deposits. However, most of India's coal lies under protected forests or designated tribal lands. Any mining activity or land acquisition for infrastructure in these coal-rich areas of India, has been rife with political demonstrations, social activism and public interest litigations.                                                                                                           
• The giant new offshore natural gas field has delivered less fuel than projected. India faces a shortage of natural gas.                                                                                                                        
• Hydroelectric power projects in India's mountainous north and north east regions have been slowed down by ecological, environmental and rehabilitation controversies, coupled with public interest litigations.                                                                                                                                              
• India's nuclear power generation potential has been stymied by political activism since the Fukushima disaster in Japan.                                                                                                                 
• Average transmission, distribution and consumer-level losses exceeding 30% which includes auxiliary power consumption of thermal power stations, fictitious electricity generation by wind generators & independent power producers (IPPs), etc.                                                                           
• Over 30 crore (300 million) people in India have no access to electricity. Of those who do, almost all find electricity supply intermittent and unreliable.                                                                                    
• Lack of clean and reliable energy sources such as electricity is, in part, causing about 80 crore (800 million) people in India to continue using traditional biomass energy sources – namely fuel wood, agricultural waste and livestock dung – for cooking and other domestic needs. Traditional fuel combustion is the primary source of indoor air pollution in India, causes between 300,000 to 400,000 deaths per year and other chronic health issues.                                                                      
• India’s coal-fired, oil-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants are inefficient and offer significant potential for greenhouse gas (CO₂) emission reduction through better technology. Compared to the average emissions from coal-fired, oil-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants in European Union (EU-27) countries, India’s thermal power plants emit 50% to 120% more CO₂ per kWh produced.