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Power outages cost Indians $6.2 Billion a year
Wednesday, 26 August 2009, 15:11 IST |
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Chennai: Indians are spending around $6.2 billion (
30,000 crore) every year to run their power back-up systems to escape frequent outages, according to a study by power genset maker Wartsila India.
The erratic power supply in the country has helped the power back-up equipment industry - inverters, batteries and small gensets - grow to the present size of around $20.8 Billion (100,000 crore).
"The real cost of power that Indians pay is far higher than what they think. The diesel used to power gensets is subsidised. Further, the quality of power from those equipment is also poor," M. Rajagopalan, Vice-President (southern region) of Wartsila, told reporters while releasing the study here.
With the money people have already invested for buying power back-up systems, the country could have set up power plants with a capacity of 25,000 MW, he said.
To find a solution to the power woes, the government should go for rapid capacity build-up. Resources for this could be raised by charging a "reliability surcharge" of 50 paise per unit on consumers, Rajagopalan said.
"The surcharge is far less than what people spend on their power back-up systems," he added.
The study covered 1,500 respondents across 21 cities.
Source: IANS
30,000 crore) every year to run their power back-up systems to escape frequent outages, according to a study by power genset maker Wartsila India.
The erratic power supply in the country has helped the power back-up equipment industry - inverters, batteries and small gensets - grow to the present size of around $20.8 Billion (100,000 crore).
"The real cost of power that Indians pay is far higher than what they think. The diesel used to power gensets is subsidised. Further, the quality of power from those equipment is also poor," M. Rajagopalan, Vice-President (southern region) of Wartsila, told reporters while releasing the study here.
With the money people have already invested for buying power back-up systems, the country could have set up power plants with a capacity of 25,000 MW, he said.
To find a solution to the power woes, the government should go for rapid capacity build-up. Resources for this could be raised by charging a "reliability surcharge" of 50 paise per unit on consumers, Rajagopalan said.
"The surcharge is far less than what people spend on their power back-up systems," he added.
The study covered 1,500 respondents across 21 cities.
Source: IANS