Lucknow: Urban Development and Energy Minister of Uttar Pradesh A.K. Sharma was answering questions raised by the opposition under Rule 56 regarding the electricity system in the Assembly. He said that electricity has become very important. There has been severe heat for the last 5 months. There is heavy humidity even during the rainy season. Still, the employees of the electricity department are working day and night to maintain the electricity supply under the instructions and leadership of the Chief Minister.
He said that this year, in the scorching heat, the highest electricity supply of 30,618 MW in the entire country was made in Uttar Pradesh, which no state has done so far in the history of India. For the last several months, the highest electricity supply in the entire country is being safely made to Uttar Pradesh.
He said that the opposition does not trust our figures, but let me tell you that we are also getting the figures from the same institutions from which the figures were received during their time. Two and a half times more electricity is being supplied to the state since 2013-14, at that time the peak demand was 12,327 MW which has increased to 30,618 MW this year.
While in the year 2013-14, 81,598 MT units of electricity were supplied throughout the year, while double of this i.e. 1,47,701 MT units of electricity were supplied in the year 2023-24.
Energy Minister AK Sharma said that with the inspiration of Prime Minister Modi, more than 1.21 lakh mazras (villages) in the state were electrified after the year 2017, whereas the previous government had focused on power supply in only a few villages.
A work plan of Rs 917 crore has been prepared and sent to the Center for electrification of 19,530 mazras (villages) of the state. Soon these remaining mazras will also be electrified. On the problems of farmers, he said that the Chief Minister has waived the electricity bills of private tube wells of farmers from 01 April 2023.
To save the crops of farmers from drying, the roster of 10 hours of electricity supply fixed for them was increased by two more hours, which is more than other states. In terms of power supply to farmers, if there is a state in the entire country that gives the most electricity, then it is Uttar Pradesh, whereas 08 hours of electricity is being supplied in Punjab, 08 hours in Haryana, 09 hours in Maharashtra, 08 hours in Gujarat, 06-07 hours in Rajasthan, 09 hours in Tamil Nadu, 07 hours in Andhra Pradesh, 07 hours in Karnataka and 10 hours in Madhya Pradesh.
On the other hand, in the matter of giving private tube well connections to farmers, the opposition government gave 25,112 connections in the year 2012-13, 18,000 in the year 2013-14, 34,000 in the year 2014-15, and 29,000 connections in 2015-16, while the Yogi government gave 70,545 connections in the year 2022-23 and 63,000 connections in the year 2023-24.
AK Sharma said that if the opposition had paid attention to strengthening the power system, then we would not have to face problems today. AK Sharma and Yogi Adityanath did not climb the poles and loosen the electric wires for the electricity problem, due to which power crisis has arisen today. He said that if we talk about the establishment of sub-stations, before the year 2017, there were 4052 sub-stations of 33/11 kV, which are 4507 sub-stations today. That is, more than 500 sub-stations of this capacity were established. Similarly, in the last 70 years, only 04 sub-stations of 765 kV transmission were built, while in the last 07 years 03 more new sub-stations of the same capacity were installed.
Similarly, before the year 2017, there were only 14 sub-stations of 400 kV, while now there are 39 sub-stations. There were only 75 sub-stations of 220 kV, which are 166 sub-stations today. Under the leadership of the Chief Minister, efforts are being made to increase the current power generation capacity of the state to more than 6000 MW. In this, an MoU was signed with NTPC to set up 2 units of 800 MW capacity in Obra-D, on which work is now underway.
Work is underway on the ground to set up two units of 800 MW each in Anpara. Work is also underway on setting up 3 units of 1800 MW each in Meja. Similarly, tenders have also been issued for new power plants of 1600 MW around coal mines. Coal linkage has also been sought from the Ministry of Coal India to set up new power plants of 4000 MW. Tender for this will also be issued soon. Thus, a project is in the pipeline to increase the thermal power of the state, which is 6000 MW, to 10,600 MW.
The Energy Minister said that similarly, work is also progressing rapidly in the field of solar energy. Contracts have also been signed for purchasing solar energy from other states. At this time, about 560 MW of electricity is going to be produced in solar. Production of 40 MW has started in Ayodhya. Solar projects of 6800 MW capacity are in the pipeline. With 1300 MW in wind, 5400 MW in hydro, 2500 MW in pump storage, more than 5 times the current capacity of electricity will be produced in the coming 10 years. As far as transformers are concerned, due to the maintenance work done in the last one year, burning of transformers has reduced. Talking about the last 2 years, 30,000 transformers of large capacity were installed in 33/11 KV substations, the capacity of 40,000 transformers was increased and 21,43,981 new poles were installed. Leader of Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey alleged that the work of replacing worn out wires is being done in every village, but the new wire is also burning. The quality of which is not good.
