India has called for integrating the entire SAARC region by a robust power grid system to address power deficit in South Asian countries.
A SAARC power grid linking Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka has the estimated potential to install at least 1,00,000 megawatts in the region for common use, Indian Minister of State for Power Mr. KC Venugopal said. Venugopal was speaking at a roundtable on “Promoting Investment Opportunity in Power Sector in South Asia: Leveraging Cross Border Power Trading” in New Delhi.
He said although India has reached a significant installed capacity of 172,000 MW, the shortages have been in the range of more than 8 percent in the energy and 10 percent during the peak hours, according to a release of Press Information Bureau (PIB) of India.
Minister Venugopal said although the issue of cross border trading is a complex one involving market, technology, finance and most importantly geo-political issues, there has been some success as well. He was of the view that electricity is the most convenient form of commercial energy that is required to fuel economic growth.
Citing example, he said one of the good examples of cross border power trading is between Bhutan and India and also to certain extent between Nepal and India, and added that Bhutan is supplying almost 1,200 to 1,400MW to the Indian grid and the arrangement between the two countries has been working to the satisfaction of both sides.
The success of power trading between Bhutan and India has encouraged the two countries to take up more hydro projects through cooperative ventures and many Indian public sector companies are engaged in collaboration to add 10,000MW capacity in Bhutan by the year 2020, the minister added.
Expressing satisfaction on increasing private investment in power generation, Venugopal said that out of more than 58,000 MW power projects under construction, private developers are supporting about 32,339MW. Thus Indian power sector is showing good example of Public- Private Partnership to enhance generation capacity and overall electricity availability in the country, he added.