Goaâs Electricity Woes
by
Brian Antao, Ph.D
Goa claims to be having a surplus in Electric power that it is selling
to other states at a good margin of profit. Yet people in the state
face poor quality of electric service, in the form of frequent power
outages, inadequate load handling capacity for even simple household
items such as the TV and the refrigerator. So while the residents of
the state are starved of good electric power supply, is it right and
justified to engage in trading electric power to other states? When the
so-called surplus could be better utilized to improve the quality of
electric power supply to residents within the state? What is being done
with all the profits generated through the surplus power trading? And
why is the profit not "re-invested" back into further upgrading Goaâs
electricity infrastructure? Electric power generation is only one part
of the equation, efficient transmission and distribution is a more
critical part. A lot of electric power gets dissipated and lost due to
a defective and faulty distribution and transmission system, of the
type that is in place in Goa.
A Chief Engineer of Goa Electricity Department has recently mentioned
that providing un-interruptible power supply in Goa is a formidable
task, involving large investment to improve the infrastructure. When
high-ranking officers and government officials in the Goa Electricity
department have such a "defeatist" attitude, one does not expect the
state-of-the affairs to improve much. One would hope instead for a more
"Can-do" and "Will-do" attitude. The proposed solution of sub-stations
fitted with three feeder lines etc. is not quite an elegant technology.
A government official when commissioning a new power "appendage" in
Margao claimed that electric power was provided to the people at a low
cost of Re. 1 per unit and they should not expect un-interruptible
power supply at the low cost. This is really the kind of hubris that
prevails, where a sense of "Civic-duty" and "Good Customer Service" are thrown out of
the back door and instead the customer is held at a "ransom".
This is the same kind of "ransom behavior" that was prevalent in the then
only government owned telephone services that operated in the most
despotic manner providing substandard service; where phone connections
were a right of only the privileged and the common man had to wait for
5-10 years to get a new phone connection. And see how that despotic
phone regime has turned around. Fortunately with the government opening
the mobile phone sector to private sector, one sees the many fruits of
competitive markets:
1.The government owned telecommunications services have been
forced to improve and be competitive and keep costs down.
2.The people have the alternative to easily and as many as they
want mobile phone connections and services from a range of private
service providers.
What we also need to see in the near future is the entry of private
sector electricity service providers, where the people donât have to be
held hostage by the arrogant governmental electricity departments. Only
then perhaps the state owned electricity services, like their telephone
and communications counterparts will be forced to improve their
services and be more competitive and provide better "Customer Service".
And yes make it very possible to provide uninterruptible power at the
same rate of Re. 1 per unit!
The real problem facing Goaâs electricity infrastructure is that it is
an antiquated one, and whatever additions being slapped on in a
haphazard way are in the form of applying bandages. The solution to the
problem is "Modernizing" the infrastructure at a grass-roots level, and
yes indeed it will require some bit of investment, but the dividends of
this investment will be very high providing a quantum leap in the
quality of service as well as improve the longevity of the
infrastructure. Having a revamped and modernized infrastructure would
also have an added bonus of attracting more industrial development in
the state. Supposedly projects have already been approved to implement
a new under-ground transmission network in the cities of Panjim and
Margao, and it is important that this development be done in a manner
which improves the quality of service and is not just a mere
replacement of over-head wiring with under-ground cables. This is a
good and opportune time to put into place a modern transmission and
distribution system in these two cities coupling it with the
under-ground cabling projects and ensuring that the power distribution
is adequate and uninterrupted.
There are many Indian subsidiaries of Global leaders in the power
sector, Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) such as ABB, Toshiba,
Mitsubishi Heavy Electric, Alstom Power, Siemens Power etc. That have
the latest power transmission and distribution technology that utilizes
state-of-the-art computer controlled techniques. The Goa Electricity
department, which is now in the process of being corporatized, would
make things easier to form a joint venture with one of these MNCs and
incorporate the state-of-the-art technology. Besides Goa is a small
state with a compact geography, modernizing the electricity
infrastructure across the state is not too daunting a task! What is
lacking is a little bit of genuine motivation to really solve these
problems in the most efficient manner, but a preference to take the
lazy path to development. Most of the developed countries and even many
of the major cities in the developing nations have uninterruptible
power supply, surely "Where there is a will there is a way" to ensuring
that the entire state of Goa too has good uninterruptible electric
power!
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