 "'Payment defaults from SEBs is why power industry is in doldrums'")
2011 has been a tough year for the power industry. As losses for distribution companies mounted and coal production saw no improvement, power expansion plans went for a toss. Even private power producers who had bid competitively for big projects saw costs rising beyond expectation. As a result players like Reliance Power stopped work in their projects.
In such a scenario ABL Srivastava, chairman and managing director of NHPC, looks back at the year and says the issues lie mainly with payment from state electricity boards (SEB) rather than off take of power.
Srivastava said, off take is not an issue as all discoms and beneficiaries are taking “required allocated power from the hydro sector because hydro power is cheaper as compared to other modes of generation.”
But the main issue lies with payment from SEBs as defaults have started creeping in, where payments have not been made within 60 days. And this he says is not something common. Beginning of the year did not have any such issues and there have been defaults for the last two months now.
As far as capital expenditure and expansion are concerned, Srivastava says things have gone out of control as the Nimmo-Bazgo project and Parvati project have slipped into next year.
Here is the full interview:
 "Union Budget: Expectations for the power sector")
 "Central government 'strengthened power sector by removing many previous shortcomings,' says PM Narendra Modi")
 "India's power consumption grows 13.6% to 132.98 billion units in April, shows govt data")
 "Entities in India’s power sector are selling without getting money on time")
 "Union Budget: Expectations for the power sector")
 "Central government 'strengthened power sector by removing many previous shortcomings,' says PM Narendra Modi")
 "India's power consumption grows 13.6% to 132.98 billion units in April, shows govt data")
 "Entities in India’s power sector are selling without getting money on time")