The Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy has informed that the Indian power sector has come a long way in past decade transforming from a power deficit to a power sufficient country.
During the last nine years, the government has implemented Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated Power Development (IPDS) schemes to achieve the objective of providing uninterrupted power supply by strengthening the sub-transmission and distribution network. The government has also implemented the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana- (SAUBHAGYA) with the objective to achieve universal household electrification for providing electricity connection to all willing un-electrified household in rural area and all willing poor household in urban areas in the country. Under these schemes, with an investment of 1.85 lakh crores, 18374 villages have been electrified and 2.86 crore household were provided electricity connections. As a result, 100% villages have been electrified. Besides this, 2927 new substations have been added, upgradation of 3965 existing sub stations has been carried out, 6,92,200 Distribution Transformers have been installed, Feeder separation of 1,13,938 Circuit Kilometer (CKm) has been done and 8.5 Lakh Circuit Kilometer (CKm) of HT and LT lines have been added/changed.
There is adequate availability of power in the country. The government has addressed the critical issue of power deficiency by adding 196558 MW of generation capacity since April 2014 transforming our country from power deficit to power sufficient. The government has increased the generation capacity by 72.3% from 248554 MW in March 2014 to 428299 MW in December 2023.
As a result of these measures, the availability of power supply in rural areas has increased from 12.5 Hours in 2015 to 20.6 Hours in 2023. The power supply in urban areas has increased to 23.78 Hours in 2023. The gap between Energy Requirement and Energy Supplied has come down from 4.2% in 2013-14 to 0.3 % in 2023-24. Even this gap between Energy Requirement and Energy Supplied is generally on account of constraints in the State transmission/distribution network and financial constraints of DISCOMs, etc.
