IAF Commanders Conference Gets Underway, Plans to Counter Threats Reviewed

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From: Press Information Bureau Ministry of I&B <pib.kolkata@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 5:09 PM
Subject: Releases.........pt5

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Ministry of Defence

IAF Commanders Conference Gets Underway, Plans to Counter Threats Reviewed

New Delhi: October 26, 2010.

 

The second biannual Indian Air Force (IAF) Commanders' Conference got underway in the Capital at Air Headquarters, today. The IAF Vice Chief, Air Officers Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of IAF's seven Commands, Principal Staff Officers (PSOs) at Air HQ are among those attending the four-day conference.

 

Air Chief Marshal PV Naik addressed the Commanders and reviewed the overall progress of the IAF. Spelling out his vision for the IAF, the Air Chief elaborated on the roadmap set forth to achieve the objectives. In the context of the present day scenario, he mentioned of the threats that could manifest in unpredictable ways and the need to maintain a constant vigil to counter the threats.

 

Over the remaining three days, the Commanders will discuss and debate key issues encompassing IAF's operational, maintenance and administrative aspects. The IAF is vigorously pursuing its modernization plans to enhance its strategic capabilities. The conference would also witness introspection on the progress made in key spheres and outline future plans of action for the IAF.

 

tks/dk/kol/17:01 hrs.

 

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

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Ministry of Power

Power Minister's Address at EEC 2010

New Delhi: October 26, 2010.

 

Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister of Power, addressed a Session in the Economic Editors' Conference (EEC 2010), here today. Following is the full text of his speech:

 

"I feel privileged to have this opportunity to address you on the occasion of Economic Editor's Conference. Let me first thank the Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for organizing this annual event which provides an excellent opportunity for direct interaction with the senior journalists and editors of the economic and financial print and electronic media.

 

I think you will all agree that power is one of the most important inputs for economic and social development of our country. The major challenge before us is to provide competitive power to the consumers while improving the reliability and quality of supply.

 

Enactment of the Electricity Act, 2003, was a major initiative towards addressing the problems which were plaguing the Power Sector. One of the most important objectives of reforms has been to achieve commercial viability and sustainability of the sector so as to ensure quality supply at affordable price. Generation, except hydro, has been delicensed. Electricity Act also provides for specific dispensation for power development in rural areas. Concepts such as rural distribution through cooperatives and arrangement of franchisees are being envisaged so that reliability and quality of power supply to these areas are also improved. The Act provides for open access in transmission from the very beginning and in distribution in a phased manner.

 

Our goal as per National Electricity Policy of 2005 is to achieve power to all and to increase the per capita availability of power to over 1000 units by 2012. As per Mid Term Appraisal a revised capacity addition target of 62,374 MW has been fixed for the 11th Plan which is three times the capacity added during 10th Plan. This comprises of 21,222 MW in Central Sector, 21,355 MW in State Sector and 19,797 MW in Private Sector. Out of this a capacity totaling to 28,572 MW has been commissioned till 19.10.2010 which is higher than total capacity added during the 10th Plan. During 2009-10, we have added 9,585 MW capacity which is highest in a single year during the last sixty years. During January 2006 till September 2009, we have added 42,000 MW capacity. Further, a capacity of 12,590 MW is being attempted on best efforts basis. Also, an additional capacity of about 14,000 MW from Non- Conventional energy sources and about 12,000 MW from captive plants are expected during the 11th Plan.

 

Friends, our future plans during 12th and 13th plan are likely to be even bigger to meet our rising demand, which will lead to substantial increase in per capita availability of power. To achieve the ambitious target, rigorous monitoring of capacity addition of the on-going generation projects is being done at the highest level by the Ministry of Power as well as by the Central Electricity Authority. To augment the equipment manufacturing capacity to support the envisaged capacity addition programme on the initiatives of Ministry of Power, five new joint venture companies are setting their base in India. The joint ventures are L&T-MHI, Bharat Forge-Alstom, Ansaldo-GB Power, Toshiba & JSW, and Thermax with Babcock & Wilcox. Besides this, Dussan from Korea is putting up equipment manufacturing facility in India on 100% FDI. This will expedite the capacity addition programme. In addition to this, capacity of BHEL is also being increased to 20,000 MW by the end of 2012.

 

Since coal will continue to dominate power generation in near future, introduction of new efficient technologies for power generation are being pursued. Installation of large size supercritical units is being encouraged with a view to have faster capacity addition and also to enhance efficiency, reduce coal consumption and Green House Gas emissions. During 11th plan, it is proposed that few units of 660MW based on supercritical technology would be commissioned. However, during 12th plan, it is estimated that around 50% of the coal based thermal capacity addition would be through supercritical units. Further, it has already been decided that 13th plan coal based thermal capacity addition will be through Supercritical units only.

 

In order to bridge the gap between demand & supply of power, especially in the context of limited financial resources available, it has become imperative to look for other options which are not capital intensive as new capacity addition and which could be implemented in a comparatively shorter time frame. In this regard optimum utilization of existing installed capacity in the country to maximize generation through Renovation & Modernization (R&M) of existing power plants had been considered to be most cost effective option.

 

CEA has prepared a National Enhanced Efficiency Renovation and Modernization Program for implementation during 11th and 12th Plans. This covers Renovation & Modernization of about 19000MW capacity, Life Extension of about 7300MW during 11th Plan and Renovation & Modernization of about 5000MW and Life Extension of about 16500MW during 12th Plan. Renovation and Modernization (R&M) and Life Extension of existing old power stations provide an opportunity to get additional generation at low cost in short gestation period. Besides generation improvement, it results in improvement of efficiency, environmental emissions and improvement in availability, safety and reliability.

 

In order to ensure free flow of electricity from one part of the country to another part we have been upgrading our inter-State transmission systems and inter-regional transmission links. As a result of these efforts, the aggregate inter-regional transmission capacity in the country today is more than 20750 MW and it is planned to increase to 32650 MW by the end of 11th Plan. We are hopeful that in the 12th Plan we will be integrating Southern Region with the rest of the country and the whole country would be operating at one common frequency backed up by a strong National Grid. The growth in transmission system is characterized by the physical growth in transmission network as well as introduction of higher transmission voltages and new technologies for bulk power transmission.

 

As you are aware, Government of India launched Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) as one of its flagship programmes in March 2005 under which electrification of one lakh eighteen thousand un-electrified villages and providing free electricity connections to 2.34 Crore rural BPL households have been taken up. The continuation of RGGVY in the 11th Plan was sanctioned by the Government in January 2008 with subsidy outlay of Rs. 28,000 crore. Under this programme, about 85,000 villages have been electrified, 1,50,163 villages have been intensively electrified and 127.87 lakh free electricity connections have been released to BPL households.

 

We are losing large quantum of electricity in the form of Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses. To check this, the Central Government is implementing Restructured- APDRP scheme. The focus of this programme is on actual, demonstrable performance in terms of AT&C loss reduction. The aim of the scheme is to reduce the AT&C losses to the level of 15% in project areas. It is expected that reduction of transmission and distribution losses will release more generation into the system without additional burning of coal or new capacity addition, thereby, reducing emission. Total programme size is Rs. 51,177 crores which consists of Rs. 10,000 crores for Part A which is energy audit and Rs. 40,000 crores for Part B, i.e. System Strengthening. Under this programme, 1401 projects at the cost of Rs 5305.23 crore have been approved to cover all the eligible towns in the country under Part-A. 644 projects worth Rs 10859.33 Cr have been approved to thirteen states under Part-B. Part-B projects for balance states are expected to be approved by March 2011.

 

My Ministry is implementing a multi-pronged strategy on energy conservation which is backed by the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. The current programmes focus on achieving energy savings which results in avoided power generation capacity of 10,000 MW during the 11th Plan period. The largest amount of savings are being obtained from the standards and labeling programme, under which we have introduced the BEE star label for a number of energy user appliances, such as refrigerators, air-conditioners, TVs, motors, pumps, etc. The Bachat Lamp Yojana is focusing on replacement of inefficient incandescent bulbs by efficient-CFLs in all households in the country. Further, the Energy Conservation Building Code is targeting new commercial building construction to ensure that they are designed in an energy-efficient manner. In the first three years' of the Plan these measures have resulted in avoided capacity generation of about 5500 MW.

 

The National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) is part of the National Action Plan of Climate Change. The Cabinet has approved the Mission during current year and we are in the process of launching it. The objective of the Mission is to devise efficient and cost effective strategies through demand side management, initiatives and market transformation in favour of energy efficient processes, products and services.

 

At last, let me convey my sincere thanks once again to the PIB people who have organized this conference giving me this opportunity to address you.

 

Thank you."

 

rj/mrs/skk/dk/kol/17:01 hrs.

--
Palash Biswas
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