A note of Power sector in Bihar

Power sector in Bihar:

• ‘Har ghar Bijli’ (supply of power to all household) is 3rd commitment under ‘Saat Nishchay’ of the state government.
  • To attain the objective of universal household electrification under this component, power companies in Bihar have been able to provide electricity to all 39,073 villages by the deadline, December, 2017 December, and to all 1.06 lakh rural habitations by April, 2018.
  • Further, the target of providing electricity connection to all willing 1.40 crore households has been achieved in October, 2018.
  • i.e. the State Government-made ‘Har Ghar Bijli’ resolve targeted to achieve it by December, 2018. However, as indicated earlier, this target has already been achieved by October, 2018, which is two months ahead of the target.
• Availability of Power:
  • Bihar has taken various measures in the field of energy for capacity addition, improving Transmission & Distribution (T & D) network and energy conservation to improve supply position.
  • Consequently, the peak demand met again had a growth of around 185 percent to reach 5139 MW during 2018-19, from 1802 MW in 2012-13.
  • The peak deficit in power has been around 32 percent in 2012-13, but it substantially decreased to 3 percent in 2018-19. The availability of power has increased from an average of 6-8 hours to 20-22 hours in rural areas and from 10-12 hours to 22-24 hours in urban areas.
  • The per capita consumption in the state has risen from 145 kwh in 2012-13 to 311 kwh in 2018-19, implying a growth of 114 percent in six years.
  • However, there exists considerable variation across the districts in terms of power consumption in Bihar.
    • In 2018-19, three most prosperous districts in terms of power consumption were — Patna (5236 MU), Gaya (1633 MU) and Nalanda (1128 MU). At the other end, three bottom districts were — Sheikhpura (190 MU), Arwal (166 MU) and Sheohar (86 MU).
• Projection of Power Requirement:
  • As of now, electric connection has been provided to all willing households in the state. In the next phase, connection is being provided to agriculture pump sets, both new as well as existing pumpsets running on diesel.
  • There will be a quantum jump in power demand in the state in the coming years, mainly due to large scale release of service connection in rural areas towards full electrification, substantial increase in agricultural consumers, rise in demand of existing consumers (because of widespread use of electrical gadgets), and industrialisation of the state.
  • Given the anticipated increase in power demand, the state government has taken various short-term and long-term measures such as addition of capacity, improvement in operational efficiency, rehabilitation and extension of distribution network, etc..
  • The expected power demand of Bihar by 2021-22 shall be of the order of 6900 MW, with an annual energy requirement of 39,841 MU.
  • The power capacity availability in the state was 3889 MW in 2018, which increased to 4767 MW in 2019, implying a growth of 22.6 percent.
  • In order to meet the increased demand for power, the State Government has already planned for additional capacity of 5335 MW from different sources in a phased manner by 2021-22.
    • These sources are — own generating stations, central generating stations, renewable energy sources, and long/ medium term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) through competitive bidding.
    • The total available capacity for Bihar by 2021-22 is expected to be 10,102 MW, of which 6421 MW (63.6 percent) will be conventional and the remaining 3681 MW (36.4 percent) non-conventional (e.g. wind, solar, small hydro, tides, geothermal heat and biomass).
    • With the availability of additional generation capacity, the deficit in peak availability of 5.4 percent during 2019-20 will be bridged by 2020-21, with a surplus availability of 1.8 percent.
• Institutional Structure of Power Sector:
  • In April, 1958, the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) was originally constituted under Section 5 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 and was mandated for the management of generation, transmission, distribution and other electricity-related activities in Bihar.
  • Under the new Bihar State Electricity Reforms Transfer Scheme 2012, the BSEB has been unbundled into five companies in November, 2012:
    • (i) Bihar State Power (Holding) Company Limited (BSPHCL)
      • It is vested with the assets, interest in property, rights and liabilities of the erstwhile Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB). The Company will primarily be an investment company. It will co-ordinate the activities of other four companies, handle disputes and provide all necessary support to them.
    • (ii) Bihar State Power Generation Company Limited (BSPGCL)
      • This company is responsible for coordinating and advising other companies and concerns, including subsidiaries, engaged in the generation of electricity.
    • (iii) Bihar State Power Transmission Company Limited (BSPTCL)
      • This company is responsible for transmission of electricity and is vested with the transmission assets
    • (iv) North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) and (v) South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL)
      • These two companies undertake the activities of distribution of electricity to all consumers, trading of electricity, and implementation of rural electrification schemes e.g. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) etc.
  • To prioritise renewable energy power uses, the state government has created Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA), engaged in the execution of various projects on solar pumps and solar installation under CAPEX(capital expenditure) mode. BREDA also carry out various energy efficiency schemes in Bihar.
• Distribution Companies (DISCOMs):
  • Distribution is an extremely important component of the whole electricity supply chain, as this is the only arm that generates revenue.
  • A major challenge of the power sector reforms lies in the efficient management of the distribution sector.
  • The distribution system in Bihar is being served by two distribution companies — North Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (NBPDCL) and South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL).
  • The distribution companies made all out efforts to address this issue by improving the billing and collection system, along with the metering of all consumer connections.
    • This resulted in reduction of Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) loss from 59.2 percent in 2011-12 to 30.2 percent in 2017-18.
  • Energy accounting and auditing at feeder level and distribution transformer (DT) level are essential for reducing these losses and the distribution companies have already started this exercise. Discoms are striving hard to bring down the AT&C loss to 15 percent.
• Current power generation capacity of Bihar:
  • As of April 2020, the installed electricity generation capacity in Bihar was 6384.88 MW. There are newer projects under construction which will take total electricity generation capacity in Bihar to more than 12000 MW.
  • In terms of ownership, central sector has the largest share of 86 percent, followed by the private sector/IPPs (13 percent) and state sector (1 percent)
  • Out of this, 82 percent is from coal-based thermal power, 11 percent from hydro power, and the balance 7 percent from renewable energy sources.
  • Some important plants are Barauni Thermal Power Station, Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Limited, Nabinagar Stage-1 Plant etc.

Central Government Programmes for Power Sector:

• Four important programmes of the Central Government for expanding the coverage of electricity supply in urban and rural areas are —
• Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY): (For rural area)
  • Bihar, with 88.7 percent of its population living in rural areas (2011 census), remains the most ruralised state in India, the national average being around 68.9 percent.
  • Thus, improving connectivity of rural areas to the grid power is of great importance. In view of this, under DDUGJY, the rural electrification work has been completed in all 38 districts of the state, with all villages and habitations fully electrified.
  • Main objectives of DDUGJY:
    • Separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders, facilitating judicious restoring of supply to agricultural and non-agricultural consumers in the rural areas.
    • Strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas, including metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers.
• Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS): (For urban area)
  • It has several components — IT enablement of distribution sector, strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution network for addressing distribution constraints, and provisioning of solar panels on government buildings to meet growing power demand.
  • In addition, the scheme also includes net-metering, and metering of distribution transformers/feeders/ consumers in urban areas.
  • This scheme is being implemented in 133 towns of Bihar.
  • The project will ensure 24X7 power supply and reduction in AT&C losses. The work is under progress and the target month for completion of the scheme is March, 2020.
• Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA):
  • I was to provide electricity to the households
  • In Bihar, resolve of Har Ghar Bijli under SAUBHAGYA→ aims to provide electricity connection to each willing household.
    • As all rural BPL households are covered under DDUGJY and there was no scheme for providing service connection to rural APL households, a scheme has been sanctioned by the State Government for releasing new service connection to APL rural households under Mukhyamantri Vidyut Sambandh Nischay Yojana (MMVSNY).
  • The State Government has adopted SAUBHAGYA and the Mukhyamantri Vidyut Sambandh Nishchay Yojana (MMVSNY) is subsumed in SAUBHAGYA. The scheme has been completed in October, 2018
• Special Plan (Backward Regions Grant Fund):
  • The Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) of the Central Government is designed to redress regional imbalances in development. This is a fully funded scheme of the Central Government.
  • The fund provides financial resources for supplementing and converging existing developmental inflows into the identified backward districts. It aims to bridge critical gaps in local infrastructure and other development requirements that are not being adequately met through existing inflows.
  • The fund facilitates participatory planning, decision making, implementation and monitoring, reflecting the locally felt needs.
  • The scheme is meant address immediate distribution constraints, meeting the load growth for next 5 years, and for bridging the gap in Rural Electrification work in 11 districts.