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Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar tops the list among the big states, which are facing highest deficit in electricity in the period between April and August 2011. The other states facing deficit are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir. The shortages in all these states are running higher than 20 per cent of the requirement.
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Maharashtra falls in fifth place with a deficit of 14.4 per cent. The performance is much poorer when compared to other industrialised states like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. In Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram, the deficit was more than 10 per cent of the requirement this year.
According to the Central Electricity Authority even as most states have performed better with reduced deficits this year compared to last year, the situation has become significantly worse in Bihar, Meghalaya and Daman and Diu. In Sikkim, Jharkhand and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, the deficit has marginally worsened.
However, overall the performance in the country was good with a 9.3 per cent growth between April and August 2011. Over the past six years, electricity generation has grown at an average annual rate of 5.3 per cent. Yet, with fast rising demand, availability has always been an issue in India.
The CEA said that total energy requirement during the first half of this year, that is April-September, was 456,011 MU, compared to 429,348 MU the previous year. Of this requirement, the total availability was short by six per cent, a better situation than last year deficit of 9.6 per cent.
Chandigarh and Lakshadweep are the only two Union Territories (UTs) with no deficit in supply while Gujarat, Orissa and Delhi have seen the lowest energy deficit over the first half of this year.
Neighbouring Jharkhand has moved the fastest on rural electrification over the past year. In August 2010, just 31.1 per cent of its villages had electricity. It was the only state with less than 50 per cent coverage in rural areas. But by the end of August this year, more than 61 per cent of its villages were connected. Rajasthan, Assam and Bihar follow with the highest coverage over the year. Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland saw no increase in rural electrification over the past year. Nagaland has the lowest coverage of the three at 64.4 per cent.
Among the larger states, the situation has not improved in Uttar Pradesh since last year. Around 12 per cent of its villages remain without electricity.
In India power sector faces severe problems because of coal shortfalls and precarious financial condition of various state electricity boards. Though capacity augmentation is being envisaged, the Draft Approach Paper to the 12th Five-Year Plan has noted that distribution is the weakest link in the power system.
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