Son of late Ved Prakash Goyal who had served as a Union Minister for shipping in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet, Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, has in the past three years completely transformed the power and energy scenario in the country.
The days of power shortages are over. In fact, for the first time India has become a power surplus country. The CA-turned-politician Goyal, who was given the task of reviving the country's comatose power sector, has not only made electricity accessible and affordable, but also made India climb to the 26th position in the World Bank's electricity accessibility, which was 99 in 2014.
The most important aspect of Goyal's plan is the stress on renewable energy. The heartening part is that the amount of coal required to generate a unit of electricity has decreased by 8 per cent in the last three years as rapid growth in the renewables has pushed the green energy share to 30 per cent with significant contribution from hydro and wind generation being supplemented by fast expansion in solar power. This is in line with India's commitment to curbing carbon emissions under the Paris climate agreement.
However, the major thrust of Goyal's energy transformation plan is rural electrification. In February, Goyal informed Lok Sabha that as many as 12,033 villages out of 18,452 un-electrified have been provided with power and the remaining would be electrified by May 2018.
In this regard, the game changer has been the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY). Scripted by Goyal himself, UDAY is the first comprehensive power sector reform seen in India as it covers the entire value chain in the power sector from fuel, to generation, transmission, renewables, distribution and consumers. It has also turned around highly indebted state power distribution companies, the weakest link in the entire electricity value chain. Efficient and healthy power distributors are able to buy more power from generators, while keeping consumer's power bills to the minimum.
Goyal, who had more than 200 meetings with different stakeholders, says UDAY will spur foreign investment as it will bring down the cost in the entire ecosystem of power, coal, and renewable energy by about Rs 1.8 trillion every year by 2019 against a business-as-usual scenario.
Goyal has dispelled the air of negativity surrounding the electricity sector, and replaced it with a sense of optimism by implementing a raft of reforms.
In an interview, he said: "We have been able to change the mindset of this country from despondency to confidence. Earlier, the story was of shortages of power and coal, of a weak system, and of failing distribution companies which are perpetually in losses—a story of negativity. Today, the sector is full of optimism and positivity."
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- In February, Goyal informed Lok Sabha that as many as 12,033 villages out of 18,452 that were un-electrified have been provided with power, and the remaining would be electrified by May 2018
- Scripted by Goyal himself, UDAY is the first comprehensive power sector reform seen in India as it covers the entire value chain in the power sector
