Engineers body AIPEF demands discussion on proposed electricity bill

All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has demanded a detailed discussion on draft Electricity Amendment Bill saying the government intends to privatize the power sector in the name of giving more rights or facilities to consumers. The government has been pitching separation of carriage and content businesses in the power distribution, which would eventually facilitate consumers to switch service providers as they do in case of mobile telephone service.

"AIPEF has noted with concern that the power ministry is drafting a new Electricity Act to replace the existing Electricity Act 2003 and demands that government of India should discuss the proposed amendments in detail with power engineers and employees before issuing the draft bill for comments of all stakeholders," an AIPEF statement said. Shaliender Dubey Chairman AIPEF condemned the move of government to privatize the power sector in one go. The bill is aimed to facilitate private houses in the name of consumers, he added.

Padamjit Singh Chief patron AIPEF said the proposal of separating carriage and content is too premature and impractical, and should not be introduced. This concept was introduced in those countries which had a huge surplus of generation capacity and had developed the metering and IT systems for energy accounting.

He further said that the Ministry of Power must get comprehensive data and documents on franchise and privatization experiments since 2003 and analyze them with engineers and employees and then only should finalize the draft proposals for electricity bill. AIPEF is of the view that India's power sector is currently reeling under financial stress. The overall cost of electricity has increased in many parts of the country because of "must-run" renewable energy projects and long-term power purchase agreements.

These must be renegotiated for the survival of the power sector. The financial stress in the power industry cannot be blamed on Discoms alone and this needs to be analyzed in-depth, it said. There is widespread apprehension amongst power professionals that sweeping changes proposed by the Ministry of power would cause further deterioration and collapse of State power utilities across the country. The proposed bill aims to dilute the role and responsibilities of the state governments, it added.