Piyush Goyal hopes for powerpacked $250 billion in investment

Expecting an investment of USD 250 billion in the power sector in the next five years, Union minister for power and coal Piyush Goyal also admitted that 18,452 villages in India were still without electricity. The minister spelt out measures taken to reform the power sector and also assured provision of 24x7 power supply to every household, including the villages that were left out.

“Considering the initiatives taken by the government in the power sector to improve efficiency, at a conservative level, we expect to attract investment of USD 250 billion by 2020 and USD one trillion by 2030. We are expecting USD 100 billion investment in renewable energy, USD 50 billion in transmission, another USD 50 billion in upgrading technology,” Mr Goyal said, while speaking in the on going ‘Make In India’ week. He was present for a discussion on coal and the power sector.

Speaking about the villages without electricity, Mr Goyal said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to supply electricity to the areas in 1,000 days. “More than 6,500 villages will receive power supply by March 2016 and the rest will get electricity by 2019,” Mr Goyal said.

Emphasising on the Centre’s initiative to replace bulbs with LED, the minister said it would save Rs 40,000 crore annually in electricity bills. “Our focus on energy efficiency by increasing the use of LED will attract an investment of USD 5-7 billion. We have taken a huge step in replacing the streetlights with LED bulbs. This initiative will help us save nearly 100 billion units of electricity and ensure nearly Rs 40,000 crore in savings annually,” Mr Goyal said.

Additionally, on the industrial equipment front we can see an investment of USD 25 billion.

“We are confident the initiatives like UDAY, tariff policy, efforts for bringing transparency in coal auction, coal swapping policy, one nation one grid initiative will help us achieve this target,” he added.