Mahangi Bijli Virodhi Sangharsha Manch, a common platform comprising of 22 different progressive, democratic, leftist organisations and parties held a convention on June 24, 2012 at IMA Hall, Patna against exorbitant rise in power tariff and for providing electricity to all.
During the election campaign, Nitish Kumar led alliance had promised to deliver electricity access to the 82% of the over 100 million inhabitants of Bihar who lack it. Bihar faces a 30% peak power deficit (highest in the country) due to its paltry 546 MW of installed capacity. This is equivalent to the size of one average coal plant, which takes at least 5-7 years to be established. Bihar loses roughly 38% of its meager amount of energy it produces through transmission and distribution.
There is a huge electricity deficit in Bihar. There is an average per capita consumption of 75 units, compared to the national average of 613 units. There are 18,395 unelectrified villages according to government's reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on of April 21, 2008 and Planning Commission.
Bihar’s power system has a peak of about 1,500 MW under the constrained demand scenario
whereas the availability is about 950 MW. The situation leads to wide-scale rationing of power to all categories of consumers. The current power availability barely covers 50
per cent of the villages and 6 per cent of the households in the state. Presently, the annual per capita consumption of power is 95 units in Bihar (national average is 717 units), according to the CEA General Review 2009 (17th Power Survey of India data 2007-08).
The positive side is Bihar has the highest density of solar panel installations in the country.
Gopal Krishna
Bihar power board to privatize power supply and distribution in Patna and Muzaffarpur
PATNA: The Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) has decided to privatize power supply and distribution in Patna and Muzaffarpur. A Mumbai based Essar Power Limited has been entrusted this job. This was decided in a board meeting of the BSEB held here on Wednesday.
The move to privatise power distribution and supply has been necessitated in view of the huge loss in its revenue collection . According to official sources, monthly revenue collection of Patna urban centre is around 60-70 crore as against the actual power consumption to the tune of Rs 90 crore. "The gap of more than Rs 20 crore is huge", admits an official.
In fact, BSEB had initiated this process way back 2009 in which Kolkata electric supply company had been selected for Patna and Muzaffarpur. But due to some technical difficulties, the tender was challenged in the high court in 2011, sources said.
The high court had put a ban on giving franchise to any private agencies. A fresh tender was invited in which Essar was shortlisted. The court has directed the BSEB to study the details of the project.
"We are still in the process of studying the final project details", said BSEB spokesman H R Pandey. The fate of the existing power employees in Patna and Muzaffarpur would also be decided, said an official.
It has been done in order to streamline the power supply in these two cities as well as the revenue collection. In the second phase, franchise would be given in other Bihar towns, said an official.
BSEB has already invited tenders in 14 districts of the state for the appointment of franchisees. The categories of people who qualify for submitting tenders are - NGOs, electricity consumers' associations, women self-help groups, entrepreneurs, panchayati raj institutions and registered companies.
The tasks of the franchisees would include delivery of bills, meter reading, collection of revenue, maintenance of low-tension wires and attending fuse-off calls. The payments collected will be submitted at the board office or its account in a bank on a regular basis.
High-tension wires (industrial consumers) have been left out of the purview of the franchisees. As for the franchisee's fee - the franchisees would be paid on the basis of their efficiency. Their earnings will increase as the franchisees' collections increases.
In an urban area - when a franchisee collects less than 75 per cent of revenue in an urban area, it would be paid nothing. The franchisees would be paid four per cent commission if they collect more than 75 per cent revenue.
In a rural area - franchisees would be paid nothing if their collection is less than 70 per cent. They would get eight per cent commission for collecting 70 to 80 per cent revenue.
The board, however, faces legal hurdles initiated by the worker's union. Once these get sorted out, at least the distribution aspect of power supply in Bihar is likely to become a lot more efficient. Curtailing theft by both the rich and the poor has been the major hurdle in Bihar thus far. The best way to curb the deep-rooted practice of electricity theft is to indeed give the collection job to the local people who know whom to target and when and how, said an official.
Pranava Kumar Chaudhary
Jun 21, 2012
The Times of India
Bihar State Electricity Board purchases power at high rate
Jun 07, 2012
Bihar State Electricity Board team to study Maharashtra power system
May 24, 2012
Bihar proposes to set up 25 hydel power projects
PTI | Apr 26, 2012
PATNA: Heavily dependent on the Centre for supply of electricity and facing acute power shortage, Bihar has taken steps for setting up 25 hydel power projects for generating about 800 MW with the proposals at various stages of approval, official sources said.
Bihar State Hydel Power Coporation Limited managing director AK Pandey told PTI that the state had at present 54 MW capacity hydel power plant and work was on at various stages for construction of different hydel power projects with generation capacity of 33 MW.
"Apart from these projects, the proposals for setting up 25 other hydel power projects with generation capacity of around 800 mw are at various stages and levels for according sanction", Pandey said.
Pandey informed that the state government had sent a proposal to the Centre with Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the long-cherished 130 mw Dagmara Hydel Power Project over River Kosi in Bihar's flood-prone Supaul district.
"We will be starting work on the project soon after receiving the go-ahead from the Centre", he said.
The Dagmara Hydel Power Project's fate hung in balance previously as the Central Electricity Authority had not given its nod to it keeping in view submergence of vast areas in bordering Nepal, he said.
"Now the project is proposed to be set up in the downstream of river Kosi and in keeping with the suggestions to the Centre about it, MS Wapkose prepared a revised Detailed Project Report and sent it the Central Electricity Authority for endorsement", Pandey said.
The World Bank and Asian Development Bank and Japanese financial institution JAICA too have evinced interest in the project, he said.
Essar Energy in pact with Bihar Electricity Board
Oct 18, 2011
Essar Energy has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) for 300 megawatts of contracted capacity from its 1,200MW coal-fired Tori I power station which is under construction in Jharkhand state.
The binding PPA has been signed by BSEB with Essar Energy's subsidiary Essar Power Jharkhand Limited (EPJL) and has a 25 year duration. This follows the issue of a Letter of Intent to EPJL, as detailed by Essar Energy in an announcement on August 18.
The PPA was secured following a competitive bidding process, with supply of power under the terms of the PPA being due to commence from May 2015.
Naresh Nayyar, chief executive of Essar Energy, said: "We are pleased to have concluded this PPA with Bihar. This contract is at a significantly higher tariff than the previous PPA with Bihar and shows we are continuing to make progress in securing revenues from our investments in power generation in India."
Essar Energy currently has 1,600MW of generation capacity operational with a further three power projects totalling 2,910MW due to be fully commissioned by March 2012, taking the total to 4,510MW. Beyond this a further seven power projects are under construction, which will take Essar Energy's total to 9,670MW by March 2014.
Bihar State Electricity Board to Get Rs 90 crore per month for electricity purchase
The Bihar government approved a proposal of giving a grant of Rs 1,080 crore to Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) for the current fiscal (2011-12) on April 17, 2011.
The proposal got approval in the cabinet meeting held on Wednesday and according to it the grant would be divided into 12 instalments of Rs 90 crore each.
This fund would be used for payment, which BSEB has to make to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) towards purchase of power from it.
Prior to December 2009, the state government used to provide a monthly grant of Rs 60 crore to Bihar State Electricity Board towards the payment for power purchase and from the aforesaid month this was revised upwardly to Rs 90 crore.
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