¡Power to the Rural People by 2012! - Melissa Snow

The future is bright The people of India can look forward to a bright future due to a new challenge initiated within the Government. The Indian Government has set the goal of providing an uninterrupted supply of power for all by 2012. In a recent statement Suresh P Prabhu the Union Minister of Power in the Indian government said, Power is critical to the development activities. The growth and performance of modern Indian economy will be reflected by this key infrastructure facility power. He went on to say, The projected growth of the Indian economy will be largely dependent on the performance of the power sector and ability to fulfil the growing demand of power supply. Hence it is of prime importance for us to take effective measures to ensure efficient production of power better transmission of power and cost recovery through proper and accounted distribution. It is our vision and mission today to make electricity available to all the sections of Indian society. The blue print on the development of power sector in India envisages - power to all by 2012.¡¨

The information in 1991 on the state of electricity in Madhya Pradesh, Jhabua district, reveals that of the 1314 inhabited villages (population 3903) only 32.87 per cent of households had access to electricity - of this percentage only 27.97 per cent was distributed to rural households while the remaining 78.48 per cent was distributed to urban households. The remaining 67.1 per cent of households did not have access to electricity. A recent survey conducted in the small tribal village of Mandli Chhoti, Jhabua district, exposed that 60 per cent of households have electricity - 10 per cent of households are pilfering the electricity. However this is not necessarily the situation throughout the rest of the Jhabua district. In Bori there is a limited supply of electricity with frequent power cuts. In Kolya Beda the majority of houses that have access to electricity have resorted to pilfering it. So why is the current situation so bad?

Electricity problems have arisen from:

-Inadequate power generation capacity
-Lack of optimum utilisation of the existing generation capacity
-Inadequate inter ¡V regional transmission links
-Inadequate and ageing sub-transmission and distribution network leading to power cuts and local failures/faults
-Large scale theft and skewed tariff structure
-Slow pace of rural electrification
-Inefficient use electricity by the end users Nearly 80,000 villages are yet to become electrified. Only 31 per cent of rural and 45 per cent of urban households are covered to date. The objective of the Ministry is to complete electrification of 62,000 villages by 2007 and 18,000 remote villages through renewable sources by 2012.

Within the Accelerated Power Development Programme are measures to strengthen the rural distribution network. A new model has been designed to clear up the mess of the current power distribution system, which has an annual 20,000 Rs crore in power theft. It identifies 60 distribution circles in different states for developing as, ¡§Centre of Excellence¡¨. This model will cover roughly a seventh of the country¡¦s power distribution system. Software for making on-line billing is planned to be incorporated into these 60 circles; such as to generate data on the flow of electric to various circles and sub-circles on half hourly basis. The technologies that are being used to help the power sector are Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems. Remote Sensing is the science and art of acquiring information about material objects, area without coming into physical contact with the objects, or area under investigation. Remote Sensing usually refers to image acquisition by means of satellite sensors or aerial photography. Geographical Information System (GIS) can be defined as a collection of computer hardware, software and geographical data that is used to input, store, manipulate, analyse and display geographical information.

Remote Sensing is being used for the identification of suitable sites for locating new hydropower projects especially in inaccessible areas like the Himalayas. Only about 17% of the vast hydel potential of 1,50,000 MW has been tapped so far in India. For siting the position of dams, geology of that area has to be known and interpreted from satellite imageries so that the area falls in a seismic zone. Remote Sensing also serves as a means for collecting and interpreting environmental information like environmental impact assessment related to hydropower projects. The data generated through Remote Sensing forms the basic input for GIS. GIS is being used for distribution analysis, network monitoring and corporate data management. With GIS it is possible to create digital maps of the precise location and engineering information of the electrical distribution network equipment that is installed in the field. If an engineer needs to know the date of installation for a transformer, all that he needs to do is click on the transformer symbol on the map and a table will appear detailing all information on that particular transformer. If he then wants to know how many transformers are installed in a given locality, the GIS will take the network data and process it within the buffer zone of the desire locality and give him the results.

Growing concerns over environmental issues and development transmission lines has led to GIS being used for analysing the selection of suitable areas for transmission lines so there is minimum environmental disruption such as, minimizing the number of trees that are cut down when transmission lines are to be positioned across a forest area.

A GIS system integrated with a consumer billing system could be very effective in detecting the power pilferage. This can be done at the consumer, distribution transformer, and feeder or substation levels. Power is a crucial ingredient for economic growth and improving the standard of life. Electricity consumption is closely link to modern life in the industrialized world. Remote Sensing and GIS tools can aid the power sector by storing the required information and analysing it as and when required. These tools help the electricity distribution and transmission utilities in managing their operations, management and maintenance of tasks more quickly. It will be very interesting to see in the year 2012 if the challenge has been met and all have power!

References:

-Census of India 1991 ¡V Series 13, Madhya Pradesh Part XII A and B District Census Handbook (village & Town Directory and Village and Town Primary Census Abstract) District Jhabua by the Directorate of census operations, Madhya Pradesh.
-Handbook on Geographical Information Systems and Digital Mapping ¡V Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division. Series F Number 79. United nations New York 2000.
-Power on Demand by 2012- The Role of GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing in Power Sector. Centre for Spatial Database Management & Solutions. 2002.
-The Madhya Pradesh ¡V Human Development Report 1998.- Government