Tales of power
Realities of power aside; people in power have the power to tell tall tales of power, despite the frontpage report of your correspondent on June10 titled "Power sector ignored"! How can it be ignored with such a nice tale being told! Imagination and power of tall tales have not been ignored, as evident from your correspondent's report.
The first tale is about "power shortfall"; the tale is of only 900MW average shortage; the reality around 2,000MW--2.2 times higher than the tale told! Do we know that the tale is probably based on daytime data when power demand is low and in any case most industries generate their own reliable and quality power with PDB on standby only!
The next tale is gas based, the word used is meeting "emergency"(?)! Is it emergency or just normal consumer demand? The climax is "shortage of gas".
There lies the tail in the tale! Generation has increased by 318MW, as told in the tale. Facts of life are that the frequency and duration of load shedding has doubled, since the CTG took over power, with grandiose talks and promises of better power availability! The culprit, or villain in the tale is "inadequate gas supply"-- a nice way to pass the buck on! Or is it "inadequate well-head gas compression facility" to overcome the reducing gas flow, due to inadequate well-head pressure. Will the powers to be, clarify this fact of life or is it a state secret?
The third tale-- claims of four private power projects of 450MW capacity being built to come on stream by end December 2010. Also, three public sector units of 380MW capacity! The tail according to the Ministry of Power is: "no private power projects is being built"! The Power Cell is now conducting tenders for two 450MW projects, and is far from awarding contracts", as reported! So, in two and a half years from now in December 2010 , will the teller of tales be there to wave his "magic wand"?
Another tale is: 43 percent of our population enjoys electricity facility.
The tail of this tale is that never "full time, only "part time"! May be twelve hours out of twenty four, if very lucky! Part-time power supply covers part of the daylight hours, and very little between 6:00 to 9:00pm; when most needed! After dusk, private residences and shops have to generate their own power, or fall back on UPS to meet only a part of their needs.
I will now conclude with the final tail of the tale, quoting Shakespeare's lines from "Hamlet": "It's a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury; signifying nothing!"
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