The story of Thermal Power Plants

         We all must have come across the police firing of civilians in kakarapalli. Before discussing the atrocities of this thermal power plant, let us have a look at the reasons behind the mushrooming of such plants recently.

       With the growing demand to meet the energy needs of the country, electricity has become even more important. With the installed capacity of 1,62,000 MW, around 60% is contributed by the thermal power plants. India has set a target of 8 lakh MW installed capacity by the end of 2025. Fifty percent of it, that is 4 lakh MW, is to be contributed solely by the thermal power. Adding insult to injury, our domestic deposits can hardly last for more than four decades. Soon we will be dependent merely on the imports. So the efforts in that direction have already gained momentum evidenced by the lobbying of the big-wigs. These big-wigs are finding a convenient way to route their black money stashed away in tax havens into our domestic market in the name of foreign direct investments. And huge concessions on tax and subsidies in land and power procurement policies of the government further compound this activity of ever-increasing and never-stopping crony capitalism. We also hear the news of newly acquired coal mines abroad by these bada babus.

          Have you ever got suspicious about this rapidly growing number of ports and thermal power plants in the state? Who might be there behind all that is associated with the coastal corridor? What prompts them to set up these ports? These ports, which are the important means of trade with the rest of the world, which in our present case are used for the import of coal from abroad, if run by governments, the private players would need to pay huge sums in the way of customs duties. So these private ports would give them a way to evade these duties by resorting to illegal practices and thereby making a huge hole to the state’s exchequer. And of course, these have an added advantage of reduced transportation bills for these private players. Any other reason would defy the logic of setting up of these plants and ports in these no-coal zones.

            Let us have a look at these statistics to understand better. We have a deficit of around 15% on average and around 20-25% during peak hours of power consumption like mornings and evenings. So there definitely exists the deficit that needs to be filled. But the way we have chosen to fill the deficit is illogical. Power transmission efficiency is just as important, if not more, as the production capacity. We will be awe struck to know that nearly 30% of the total power production goes waste in transmission itself. Our power system is like many-holed bucket, we seek to keep the water in bucket by putting in more water instead of patching the holes. We first need to create awareness among the public to save power. Another important area of concern is that most production units do not operate to their full working capacity. Even the days on which they work to their full capacity are also very less. If we work in this direction, we can greatly reduce the need for new power plants.

          Let us see who gets benefited from these plants. All the newly constructed plants in the state are merchant power plants. It means the electricity they generate do not belong to the state, they are out in the market for sale like any other commodity which has to be bought under competitive bidding. No away this power can be subsidized to the poor, resulting in the further burden on the common man. Talk about employment creation? With the increase in modern day technologies, the plants can be run with the fewest of technicians one could ever have imagined. Assuming these plants create thousands of jobs would be just a wishful thinking. Thinking whatever jobs created by these plants would be landed in the unskilled or traditionally skilled tribal people or indigenous people would be nothing short of foolishness. In the end, it means reducing a small-sized entrepreneur called farmer into a daily wagers. Hot water which used as coolant in the thermal plants will cause severe damage to the marine life thus endangering the livelihood of the fishing community and needless to mention the pollution it causes. Even now, India does not have effective treatment methods for fly ash leading to poor yields of the crops impoverishing the farmers. The proposed power plant in kakarapalli comes under the wetland. So the proposed plant would irreversibly damage the surrounding wetland and ecology. So plants like these are a bane not just on farmers and indigenous people living in there but on the state and country as well.

         So we should think about the alternatives to meet the future power needs, and should encourage wind and solar powers plants as they don't cause any harm to the environment and society and we all should fight against these harmful Thermal power plants.