Future planning

FUTURE PLANNING

The following table gives the total installed capacity and percentage installed capacity by various means of power generation in India:

1. NATIONAL GRID SYSTEM

Due to uneven distribution of energy resources, it was not possible to plan equal power development in all states of the country. To solve this problem, Government of India has divided the country into five regions, viz., Northern, Western, Southern, Eastern and Northeastern regions.

Yes! In our country different power resources are available in different states. Therefore, in order to ensure constant supply to all the consumers throughout the year, interlinking of various power plants is essential so that spare capacity of one power station can be utilized by the other. With this objective in view, programme for integrated power generation on regional basis by interlinking the power stations of adjoining states has started working and successful functioning of regional grids may finally give way to National Grid System.

Five regions already have interconnected power systems, namely, Northern, Western, Southern, Eastern and Northeastern regions.

 Advantages

1. National Grid System enables the base load to be supplied by the most economical power stations and peak demand to be supplied by the more expensive power stations.

2. It provides security against all normal operating hazards with a small margin of spare capacity.

2. SUPER THERMAL POWER STATIONS

Further the Government has planned to set up five Super Thermal Power Stations, each of 2000 MW capacity at Tamil Nadu (Neyveli), Andhra Pradesh (Ramagundam), U.P. (Singrauli), Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

The future planning for power development should aim at the optimum exploitation of the abundant resources available so that a proper mix of hydro, thermal and nuclear capacity is achieved. The danger of exhausting the fossil fuels by the end of 21st century is the major problem before the energy hungry civilization.

The scientists in various institutes of this country are engaged in research and development in the area of new and renewable sources of energy. Our present day students and future engineers need a proper grounding in this direction.

A major program in the current Five-Year Plan is to undertake extensive research work of renewable energy systems based on solar and wind energy. These sources are bound to play a major role in future.